^?'> 


^^T-'T^ 


r\\^> 


LIBRARY 


HISTORY  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 


HISTORY 


OF  THE 


American  Episcopal  Church 


BY 

S.  D.  McCONNELL,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D. 


TENTH   EDITION 


REVISED  AND  ENLARGED 
AND  CONTINUED  TO  THE  YEAR  1915 


MILWAUKEE 
THE  YOUNG  CHURCHMAN  CO. 

LONDON 

A.  R.  MOWBRAY  &  CO. 

1916 


Exchange 


COPYKIGHT,    1890.     BY     TlIOMAS    WHITTAKER 

Copyright,    1897,    by    Thomas    Whittaker 
Copyright,  1916,  by  The  Young  Churchman  Co. 


TO   MY  BOYS 
ELLICOTT,   GUTHRIE,    CIIRYSTIE 


"  Superficial  it  must  be,  but  I  do  not  disown  the  charge.  Better 
a  superficial  book  which  brings  well  and  strikingly  together  the 
known  and  acknowledged  facts,  than  a  dull,  boring  narrative,  pausing 
at  every  moment  to  see  farther  into  a  millstone  than  the  nature  of 
the  millstone  will  admit." 

— SiE  Walter  Scott,  Journal,  Dec.  22,  1825. 


PREFACE  TO  TENTH  EDITION 

In  preparing  this  sketch  of  the  American  Church 
originally,  I  stopped  at  the  settlement  of  the  Civil  War. 
Of  conrse  this  was  an  arbitrary  stopping  place.  The 
war  was  not  an  ecclesiastical  epoch,  and  its  settlement 
concluded  no  Chnrch  movement.  But  its  date  coin- 
cided with  the  entrance  upon  the  stage  of  the  Church- 
men living  at  the  date  of  the  writing.  I  shrank  from 
the  frank  expression  concerning  contemporary  men  and 
events  which  I  had  ventured  upon  with  those  the  record 
of  whose  influence  had  been  made  I'lp. 

Moreover,  the  most  difficult  history  to  write  is  con- 
temporaneous history.  One  cannot  tell  surely  wdiat 
events  are  important  and  what  trivial.  Time,  and  time 
alone,  sorts  them  out  and  assigns  to  each  its  proper  sig- 
nificance. 

I  have  now  attempted  to  sketch  briefly  the  Church's 
movement  do^^^i  to  the  present  time.  Xo  doubt  I  have 
left  unnoticed  men  and  things  which  another  would 
have  dwelt  upon,  and  have  laid  emphasis  upon  events 
which  another  would  have  disregarded.  All  that  I  can 
say  is  that  this  is  the  way  that  the  history  appears  to 
me.  If  it  appears  otherwise  to  another  he  has  the  right 
to  record  it  in  his  fashion. 

Easter,  1916.  S.  D.  McConnell. 


CONTENTS. 


PART   FIRST. 
THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  IN  THE   COLONIES. 

CHAPTKR  PACK 

I.    THE   STAGE ,5 

The  Indians;  ownersliip  of  the  soil;  occasion  of  tlie 
immigration  ;  the  Spanish  Peace;  the  Act  of  Uniformity  ; 
its  effect  to  destroy  the  national  quality  of  the  Church. 

II.     THE  VIRGINIANS 14 

Kaleigh's  Colony;  Gorges'  Colony;  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany; the  first  Church;  English  interest  in  Colonial 
ventures;  Indian  Missions;  Pocahontas;  first  represent- 
ative Assembly ;  laws  concerning  Religion ;  spirit  of  the 
laws ;  relaxation  of  manners. 

III.  THE  PURITANS 26 

Religious  parties  in  England;  not  unequal  division; 
the  Churchmen's  theory;  the  "Pilgrims";  the  Salem 
Colony;  Puritan  theory  and  practice;  the  Puritan  tem- 
per; the  Puritan  laws;  planting  the  Church;  John 
Morton;  the  Brown  brothers;  the  Rev.  William  Blax- 
ton ;  Churchmen  in  Massachusetts ;  witlidrawal  of  the 
Charter;  the  Church  and  the  Government;  parish  or- 
ganized in  Boston;  Governor  Andros;  the  Old  South; 
King's  Chapel;  the  quarrel  ended. 

IV.  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLICS 48 

Lord  Baltimore;  the  Maryland  Colony;  Romanists 
and  religious  liberty;  persecution  by  them  impossible; 
slow  growth  of  the  colony;  "bad  Catholics'";  revoca- 
tion of  the  Charter;  unworthy  Clergy ;  the  situation  in 
1770. 

V.    THE   DUTCH 59 

Seeking  the  East  Indies;  ecclesiastical  position  of  the 
Dutch  ;  the  Dutch  as  settlers;  religious  toleration;  com- 
ing of  the  English  ;  Church  establishment;  plan  for  the 
Episcopate ;  Trinity  Church. 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VI.     THE   SOUTH  lilVER 69 

The  Swedes ;  their  absorption  by  the  English  ;  George 
Fox;  Quakerism;  extravagauce  and  repression;  persecu- 
tion; Quakers  in  New  Jersey;  William  Penn ;  Penn's 
Colony;  Quakers  coming  to  the  Church;  George  Keith; 
first  Pennsylvania  Church;  increase  and  spread. 

VII.     THE  CAROLINAS    .        .        , 82 

Indians  and  Welsh;  the  "noble"  Colony;  religious 
condition ;  Cl.Qrch  establishment. 

VIII.     A.  GENERAL  SURVEY 88 

The  year  1700;   Services;   use  of  the  Prayer  Book; 
social  status  of  the  Clergy;  Clerical  manners;  effect  of 
Puritanism  upon  the  Ministerial  otRce;  conflict  with  the  ' 
Vestries;  effect  of  government  support;  the  Church  in 
New  England;  in  the  Middle  Colouius. 

IX.    THE   "VENERABLE   SOCIETY" 96 

Dr.  Bray ;  his  report  upon  the  Church  in  the  Colonies ; 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign 
Parts;  instructions  to  Missionaries;  Keith  and  Talbot; 
conciliating  Dissenters;  building  churclies;  work  of  the 
Missionaries. 

X.    THE   COMMISSARIES:  MARYLAND       .        .        .        .105 
Dr.  Bray;   the  Maryland  establishment;   attempt  to 
reform  manners;  the  Clergy  rs.  the  people;  hostile  legis- 
lation ;  growth  of  other  churches. 

XL    THE   COMMISSARIES:  VIRGINIA 112 

William  and  Mary  College ;  opposition  to  the  College ; 
the  College  and  the  Church;  decline  of  discipline;  at- 
tempt at  reform ;  devoted  men  in  the  Church ;  growing 
spirit  of  Americanism;  the  "  Parsons' Cause "  ;  Patrick 
Henry;  the  results. 

XII.    THE  NEW   ENGLAND   CONVERTS         ....     127 
President  Cutler ;  the  question  of  Orders;  the  attrac- 
tion of  the  Church  ;  President  and  Professors  of  Yale 
enter  the  Church;  Puritan  opposition;  accessions;  Dean 
Berkeley. 

XIII.    THE   "GREAT   AWAKENING" 136 

Jonathan  Edwards;  the  "Revival"  at  Northampton; 
Edwards's  theory  of  "conversion";  "bodily  exer- 
cises"; spread  of  the  movement;  the  "jerks";  meets 
Whitefield  ;  attitude  of  Churchmen  ;  the  reaction  ;  effect 
upon  American  religion;  the  Church's  position;  how 
affected  by  the  movement. 


CONTENTS. 


XI 


CHAPTER 

XIV. 


XV. 


XVI. 


XVII. 


XVIII. 


XIX. 


PAGE 

147 


THE   GERMANS   

First  German  immigration;  the  "Pennsylvania 
Dutcli";  religious  character  and  condition;  the  Mora- 
vians ;  their  influence  on  Whitefield;  intractable  material 
for  the  Church. 

THE  SCOTCH-IRISH I53 

England  and  Scotland  at  tlie  Reformation  ;  Calvinism 
and  Presbyterianism ;  Presbytery  and  Episcopacy ; 
Episcopal  rigor;  emigration  to  Ireland;  emigration  to  the 

_  United  States;  hostility  to  the  Church  ;  a  cordon  around 

'  her;  influence  upon  the  Church. 

THE   METHODISTS m) 

The  first  American  sect;  its  origin;  Methodists  the 
first  "  Ritualists  ";  the  Wesleys  in  Georgia ;  Wesley  as  a 
parish  priest;  Wesley  and  the  Moravians;  Wesleys 
"  conversion  ";  desperate  state  of  Religion  in  England  ; 
the  Metiiodist  purpose;  Whitefield  the  preacher  and 
Wesley  the  organizer;  Methodi.sm  comes  to  America; 
still  within  the  Church;  the  INIethodist  "  Bishops  ";  the 
loss  by  separation. 

THE   EPISCOPATE I73 

Two  theories  of  the  Church;  disadvantage  of  the 
Church's  theory  in  the  Colonies  ;  Ordination  and  Dis- 
cipline ;  early  efforts  for  the  Episcopate ;  the  need  of  it 
patent;  great  op])ortunities  lost;  the  "  S.  P.  G.'s"  plan; 
the  Pennsylvania  plan;  reasons  of  the  failure;  current 
conception  of  the  Episcopal  ofidce  ;  Colonial  opposition; 
early  thought  of  sejiaration  ;  legal  status  of  the  Colonies  ; 
opposition  not  unreasonable;  John  Adams's  opinion; 
not  possible  till  after  the  Revolution;  idea  of  an  "  Inde- 
pendent Episcopal  Church";  Dr.  White's  plan;  the 
popular  judgment. 

A   SURVEY 190 

Spread  of  the  Chui-cli  in  Connecticut ;  in  New  York ; 
in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania;  in  the  South;  Indian 
Missions;  sources  of  gain;  lack  of  Clergy;  state  of  Re- 
ligion ;  influence  of  Franklin ;  coarseness  of  the  age ; 
social  distinctions;  Services;  Architecture;  Confirma- 
tion ;  Clerical  support. 


THE   WAR  OF   INDEPENDENCE  .... 

The  inevitable  conflict;  equal  division  of  parties;  ex- 
odus of  Tories;  lay  Churchmen's  position  ;  position  of  the 
Clergy;  "patriot"  Clergy;  "  loyalist"  Clergy;  sufferings 
of  the  Clergy;  desolation  of  the  Church. 


202 


xii  CONTENTS. 


PART   SECOND. 

THE     PROTESTANT     EPISCOPAL     CHURCH     IN      THE 
UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  GATHERING  UP  THE  FRAGMENTS  .  .  .  .215 
The  confusion;  treatment  of  the  Tories;  popular  opinion 
about  tlie  Church;  tliree  motives  in  reorganization-;  tlie 
Southern  attempt;  the  Churcli  named;  organization  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia;  relation  of  Church  and  State 
settled. 

II.     THE   NEW  ENGLAND   PLAN 223 

New  England  Cliurchmanship;  distrust  of  loose  views; 
first  Connecticut  Convention ;  political  obstacles ;  choosing 
a  Bishop;  the  programme;  the  sentiment  in  England; 
English  Bishops'  reluctance;  the  Scotch  and  New  England 
Churches;  the  Nonjurors;  the  first  Bishop. 

III.  THE   FEDERAL   IDEA  238 

Colonial  school  of  statesmanship;  Rev.  Dr.  "Wliite;  the 
Conference  at  New  Brunswick;  fundamental  principles; 
Constitutional  Convention;  tsvo  proposed  policies;  State 
and  Church  Constitutions;  laymen  in  Church  Councils; 
revising  the  Prayer  Book;  the  "  Proposed  Book  " ;  Fourth 
of  July  Service;  nnti-dogmatic  spirit;  Unitarianism ;  the 
Episcopate;  Address  to  the  English  Bishops;  the  Bishops' 
reply ;  Bishops  chosen. 

IV.  THE  TWO  EPISCOPACIES  254 

Two  Episcopal  Churches:  obstacles  to  union;  plans  to 
perpetuate  the  separation  ;  striving  for  union;  Dr.  Parker's 
scheme;  Convention  of  1780;  Bi.shop  White  and  the  Eng- 
lish succession;  adjusting  difficulties;  Bishop  Seabury's 
Toryism;  adopting  a  Liturgy;  modifying  the  Constitution; 
consolidation. 

V.  STRUCTURAL  DEVELOPMENT 264 

The  experiment  revolutionary;  government  by  Conven- 
tion; relation  of  the  three  orders;  powers  of  a  Bishop; 
right  of  Visitation  ;  encroachment  of  Standing  Committee  ; 
powers  of  the  House  of  Bishops  increased;  discipline  of 
the  Laity;  control  of  the  Liturgy;  Uniformity;  Hymns; 
power  of  General  Convention  ;  State  autonomy  ;  its  gradual 
abandonment;  The  Thirty-nine  Articles;  their  origin; 
their  obligation. 


CONTENTS.  xili 

CHAPTER  PAGK 

VI.     FROM  THE  OLD  TO  THE   NEW      .....    277 

Old  men  and  new  times;  a  dark  epoch;  French  infi- 
delity; position  of  the  Church;  Confirmation;  slack  ad- 
ministration; troubles  in  New  York;  election  of  Hobart; 
the  question  of  wigs;  condition  in  the  South;  low  estate  in 
Virginia;  Meade  ordained;  situation  in  New  England; 
Bishop  Seabury's  manner ;  Dr.  Coke's  proposition  ;  Metho- 
dists gone  beyond  recall;  dawning  of  better  days  ;  new  men 
at  work  ;  representative  men;  beginning  of  Sunday-schools ; 
state  of  the  Church  in  1820. 

VII      WAITING   FOR   VOLUNTEERS 297 

The  national  Church  passive;  pioneer  Churchmen;  re- 
ligion in  the  backwoods;  first  thought  of  Missions;  two 
streams  of  emigration;  Bishop  Cliase;  in  New  Orleans; 
pioneer  missionary  in  Ohio;  the  frontier  Bishop;  Kenyon 
College;  the  Church  in  Kentucky;  Bishop  Otey;  the 
Church  in  Tennessee ;  new  departure  iu  1835. 

VIIL     NEW  SPIRITUAL  FORCES 311 

Meagre  spiritual  life;  the  Evangelicals;  their  differen- 
tiate; conscious  experiences;  Simeon's  Confessions;  their 
conception  of  the  Church ;  Low  Churchmen ;  their  achieve- 
ments;  cause  of  their  decline;  Thomas  Scott;  their  leaders 
in  America;  High  Church  revival;  the  two  parties;  divis- 
ion of  labor;  advance  of  Churchmanship;  following  the 
emigration;  two  Ideals. 

IX.    THE  CATHOLIC   RENAISSANCE 324  y 

Emergence  of  Church  Idea;  trial  of  Bishops;  agencies 
at  work  ;  increasing  activity;  change  of  manners;  corporate 
religion;  the  "Oxfoi'd  Movement";  the  "  Tractarians"; 
the  Via  Media;  Newman's  purpose:  the  Via  Media  in 
America;  American  Churchmen  ;  Anglo-Catholics;  a  time 
of  strife ;  perverts  and  converts ;  good  and  evil  of  the 
Movement. 

X.     A   PLACE   WHERE  TWO  WAYS  MEET       .        .        .342 

Falling  behind  the  population;  a  Church  or  a  Sect;  the 
Memorial;  emancipation  of  the  Episcopate;  loosening  of 
Rubrics;  revival  of  the  Diaconate;  Church  Unity;  divers 
opinions;  a  true  bill  found;  a  fatal  choice;  spirit  of  Gen- 
eral Convention  ;  progress  in  a  narrow  path  ;  the  Church  in 
California ;  the  Church  iu  Oregon ;  muttering  of  coming 
war. 


xiv  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PA.GE 

XI.     IN   WAR  TIME 360 

Division  of  Churches  upon  the  question  of  Slaverj- ; 
political  division  furthered  thereby;  Episcopal  Church  not 
divided  ;  general  sentiment  in  the  Church  ;  the  Church 
faulted  ;  mutual  understanding  ;  Southern  Bishops  oppose 
secession  ;  Southern  idea  of  the  Church  and  the  States  ; 
Secession  ;  the  Church  and  the  Union  ;  the  Church  in  the 
Confederac}' ;  conflict  with  Federal  authorities  ;  General 
Butler  as  a  Canonist ;  fall  of  the  Confederate  Church. 

XII.  THE  REUNITED   CHURCH 374 

Moving  toward  union  ;  obstacles  in  the  way  ;  Arkansas; 
Bishop  Wilmer ;  Bishop  Polk ;  General  Convention  of 
1865;  reunion  imperilled;  Mr.  Horace  Binney's  resolu- 
tion ;  Dr.  Kerfoot's  plea ;  reunion  ;  disbandment  of  the 
Confederate  Church  ;  religious  effects  of  the  war  ;  new- 
forces  and  new  problems  ;  task  of  the  present  generation. 

XIII.  DOCTRINE  AND   CEREMONIAL 382 

The  worth  of  ritual ;  the  Church  idea ;  civic  ritual ;  the 
ritualists'  contention  ;  Bishop  Hopkins's  book;  the  Bishops' 
Declaration  ;  the  Ritual  Commission  ;  things  forbidden  ; 
Dr.  De  Koven's  challenge  ;  the  Church's  comprehensive- 
ness ;  the  end  of  controversy. 

XIV.  PEACE    WITH   HONOR 395 

Evangelical  perplexity ;  Bishops'  declaration  on  regen- 
eration ;  the  idea  of  secession ;  "  Reformed  Episco- 
palians." 

XV.     PRAYER-BOOK   REVISION 402 

"The  Prayer-Book  as  it  is;"  separation  of  offices;  the 
science  of  liturgies  ;  revision  begun  ;  the  Book  Annexed. 

XVI.     THE  CHURCH   SEEKING   FELLOWSHIP  .        .        .410 

Looking  to  the  East ;  Italian  reform  ;  Mexico  ;  contra- 
dictory reports  from  Mexico  ;  Mexican  commission  ap- 
pointed ;  consecration  of  Bishop  Riley  ;  the  Church  unity 
movement ;  the  Quadrilateral. 

XVn.    THE  RECENT  PAST 42S 

Commission  on  Faith  and  Order  ;  Church  Work  ;  Age 
of  Corporate  Action  ;  The  Modern  Priest ;  Free  Church 
System  ;  The  New  Social  Conscience :  Marriage  and 
Divorce';  Rights  of  the  Laity;  The  Church  and  the 
Negro;  Change  of  Name;  Provincial  System;  Propor- 
tionate Representation. 


XVIII.    THE    NET    RESULT 


444 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 

Captain  Johx  Smith ^ 

Frieze.     Robert  Humt  and  the  Jamestown  Colony       .  17 

PoHicK  Church,  Virginia 119 

Goose  Creek  Church,  South  Carolina       .        .        .        .  125 

Benjamin    Franklin           19i5 

SamuiIL  Seabury,  first  Bishop  of  Connecticut       .        .  227 

William  White,  first  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania       .        .   •  236 

Edward  Bass,  first  Bishop  of  Massachusetts  259 
Philander  Chase,  first  Bishop  of  Ohio  and  afterward 

OF   Illinois 293 

William  Augustus  ISIuhlenberg 343 

John  Henry  Hopkins,  first  Bishop  of  Vermont       .        .  387 

James   De    Koven 392 

Morgan    Dix 394 

Nashotah — IN    early    days 410 

The  Washington  Cathedral 440 


INTRODUCTION. 


For  many  years  I  had  it  in  my  mind  to  attempt  a 
History  of   American    Christianity.     It   has   been  fre- 
quently   noticed    that    the    Christianity    of    America 
possesses  characteristics   of    its    own.     It   is   not   only 
different  in  many  regards   from  that  which  subsisted 
in  Europe  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  the  colonies ; 
but  it  is  different  from  that  which  subsists  in  any  other 
portion  of  Christendom  now.     Christianity  here  wears 
a  garment  of  American  weaving  and  American  adorn- 
ment.    The  religious  history  of  the  country  is  quite  as 
striking  as  its   political;  it  has  had  as  many  and  as 
marked  epochs;  the  influences   which  have  shaped  it 
have  to  be  sought  for  in  more  numerous    and   more 
diverse  sources ;  and  those  influences  are  more  actively 
at  Avork  now  tlian  are   those  which  produce  political 

changes. 

With  this  fact  in  view  I  thought  to  trace  the  stream 
of  religious  life  in  the  United  States  to  its  many  and 
various  sources,  to  estimate  the  relative  size  and  im- 
portance of  the  affluents  which  have  colored  it,  and 
maybe  to  forecast  its  future  course. 

I  found  the  project  to  be  so  difficult  that  I  abandoned 
it.     Contemporary  history  is  the  least  valuable  of  all 


xviii  INTRODUCTION. 

kinds.  The  relative  importance  of  events  and  persons 
cannot  be  fairly  estimated  till  time  has  tested  them  and 
shown  which  is  great  and  which  is  small.  The  coher- 
ence of  the  facts  in  the  religious  history  of  our  land 
cannot  yet  be  seen.  The  facts  themselves  are  abundant 
to  embarrassment ;  but  they  cannot  yet  be  strung  upon 
any  single  thread  which  I  have  been  able  to  discover. 
In  the  political  history  of  the  country  the  unifying  fact 
is  the  gradual  coalescence  of  a  number  of  independent 
and  rival  political  organizations  into  one  great  whole, 
bound  together  by  their  common  interest  in  a  constitu- 
tionally regulated  liberty. 

But  alas !  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  United 
States  has  lagged  a  whole  century  behind  its  political. 
Free  and  independent  churches  are  coincident  in  date 
with  free  and  independent  colonies.  In  the  State  the 
movement  toward  unity  set  in  a  hundred  years  ago ;  in 
the  Church  it  is  only  beginning  to  show  itself.  The 
Church  has  been  content  for  most  of  this  time  with 
Mexican  anarchy.  It  had  been  excused  or  justified  by 
precisely  the  same  arguments  which  were  used  in  the 
colonies  against  the  adoption  of  the  federal  Constitu- 
tion: "Liberty  is  best  secured  by  allowing  each  to 
work  in  its  own  way ;  the  danger  of  attack  from  with- 
out is  so  remote  and  unlikely  that  it  need  not  be  con- 
sidered ;  the  original  charters  of  each  are  inalienable ; 
the  weak  ones  will  be  swallowed  up  by  the  strong; 
mutual  jealousies  and  ancient  grudges  are  too  strong 
and  deep-rooted  to  be  overcome ;  no  principle  of  federa- 


INTRODUCTIOX.  xix 

tion  can  be  proposed  which  can  ever  be  adopted  ;  the 
different  colonies  can  best  dwell  together  as  brethren 
by  not  coming  into  too  close  relations." 

While  this  condition  of  things  remains  there  cannot 
be  written  a  history  of  the  American  Church.  That 
will  not  be  possible  until  there  shall  be  an  American 
Church.  That  time  will  surely  come,  —  when,  no  man 
may  say. 

I  have  undertaken  therefore  the  more  modest  task  to 
set  out  the  history  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States,  Its  life  is  continuous  from  the 
beginning.  It  was  first  on  the  ground.  It  is  of  inter- 
est to  all  Churchmen,  and,  for  reasons  which  I  liope  to 
make  evident,  ought  to  be  to  all  Americans.  I  shall 
speak  of  it  habitually  as  "  the  Church  "  —  not  as  arro- 
gating for  it  an  exclusive  right  to  tliat  title,  but  because 
its  legal  name  is  uncouth  and  clumsy.  I  shall  try  to 
tell  the  story  of  what  it  has  accomplished,  and  to  speak 
candidly  of  its  excellences  and  its  faults.  A  history 
should  above  all  things  else  be  true.  Glozing  of  faults 
and  apologizing  for  wrong  deeds  is  not  the  part  of  an 
honest  friend  or  of  an  honest  man.  The  Church  can- 
afford  to  have  the  trutli  told  even  about  herself.  He 
who  finds  it  in  his  way  to  do  this  may  not  be  accused 
of  uncovering  his  mother's  nakedness. 

But  in  the  telling  of  the  stor}^  large  space  will  be 
occupied  in  examining  the  religious  character  and 
habits  of  those  among  and  upon  whom  the  Church  has 
wrought.     She  has  done  great  things  for  them,  whereof 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

tliey  are  not  ashamed  to  say  they  are  glad,  but  they 
have  also  done  much  for  her.  The  Episcopal  Church 
has  been  far  more  profoundly  modified  by  her  environ- 
ment here  than  her  members  realize.  Some  •of  her 
most  cherished  possessions  have  come  to  her  from  with- 
out. In  many  cases  she  has  never  known,  or  has  long 
since  forgotten,  the  name  of  the  giver,  but  still  holds 
and  values  the  gift.  It  will  be  our  task  to  notice  the 
reciprocal  influence  of  this  Church  upon  tlie  communi- 
ties where  she  has  lived,  and  of  those  peoples  upon  her. 
We  will  see  that  she  has  thriven  among  Puritans  and 
Quakers,  Baptists  and  Presbyterians,  Dutch,  Germans, 
and  Irish ;  has  taught  them  all  something,  and  learned 
something  from  them  all. 


PART    I. 

THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND  IN  THE  COLONIES. 


HISTORY   OF   THE 
AMERICAN   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 


PART    I. 
THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND  IN  THE  COLONIES. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE   STAGE. 


We  will  take  for  the  starting-point  the  year  1600. 
We  will  notice  in  their  order  the  Stage,  the  Actors,  and 
the  Drama. 

The  stage  npon  which  the  action  begins  is  the  Atlan- 
tic seaboard,  from  the  Kennebec  on  the  north  to  the 
Savannah  on  the  south,  and  extending  backward  roughly 
to  the  Mississippi.  To  the  north  and  northwest  the 
French  are  in  possession.  Seventy  years  before  this  time 
Cartier  had  sailed  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  anchored 
his  shallop  off  the  Heights  of  Abraham.  Champlain 
and  his  little  band  of  hardy  adventurers  are  "  seeking 
the  skins  of  beasts  and  the  souls  of  men  "  on  the  banks 
of  the  great  lakes.  That  picturesque  movement  of 
French  exploration  and  Jesuit  missionary  zeal  had 
already  set  in  which  carried  Marquette  to  the  Illinois, 
Hennepin  to  the  Falls -of  St.  Anthony,  and  La  Salle  to 
the    Brazos.     Unfortunate    Acadie  was   in  its  infancy. 


6  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IN   THE   COLONIES. 

Le  Caroii,  the  Franciscan  monk,  and  the  Jesuits  Jogues, 
Breboeuf,  and  Garnier  were  getting  ready  for  that 
career  which  was  to  end  in  martyrdom  among  the 
Hurons  and  Iroquois. 

On  the  south  and  southwest  the  Spaniards  held  the 
soiL  Forts  and  churclies  were  on  the  St,  John's  and  the 
Gulf,  and  a  bishop  with  his  priests  on  the  Rio  Grande. 

But  from  Maine  to  Georgia  no  white  man  dwelt.  It 
was  a  virgin  held  upon  which  to  work  out  the  prolilems 
in  religion,  politics,  and  social  life,  which  were  perplex- 
ing England.  The  country  was  not  witliout  inhabit- 
ants.    It  was    held   by  the  only  race  of  savages  Avho 

have  ever  been  able  to  make  a  stand  afrainst 
The  Indians.       ,  ,  .  .... 

the  advancing  army  of  civilization.      Tliese 

witlistood  it,  fought  it  off,  broke  themselves  against  it, 
dammed  it  back  in  one  locality,  only  to  find  it  flo wing- 
in  behind  them  in  another,  until  they  perished  in  their 
tracks,  or  became  encysted  within  set  limits  among  the 
new  people.  How  man}-  Indians  there  were  three  cent- 
uries ago,  it  is  not  possible  now  to  know.  The  consen- 
sus of  scientific  guesswork  sets  the  number  at  about 
one  million,  within  the  present  territory  of  the  United 
States.  They  were  divided  roughly  into  three  great 
groups  or  clusters. 

(1)  The  Algonkins,  who  have  left  their  crabbed 
polys3'llables  in  tlie  names  of  New  England  lakes  and 
rivers.  (2)  A  subdivision  of  the  same  great  family, 
of  a  more  euphonious  speech  and  a  fiercer  savagery, 
whose  seat  was  between  the  Hudson  and  the  Susque- 
hanna, and  stretching  westward  indefinitely  to  and 
beyond  the  Mississippi.     (3)  The  Appalachians,  dwell- 


THE   STAGE.  7 

ing  south  of  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Mississippi.  In 
their  manners  they  ranged  from  ahsolute  savagery  in 
the  north  to  semi-harbarism  in  the  south.^  The  con- 
version of  these  people  to  Christianity  was  the  first,  or, 
at  any  rate,  the  first-named  motive  for  the  coming  of 
all  the  colonies.  We  shall  have  to  notice  again  and 
again  the  efforts  made  to  carry  out  this  purpose.  We 
will  find  it  to  be  a  record  of  failures.  We  will  discover 
also  a  strange  uniformity  of  feature  in  the  successive 
failures.  In  every  case  the  intelligence,  apparent  self- 
restraint,  dignity,  and  gravity  of  the  Indian  led  the 
missionaries  to  forecast  great  successes.  The  first  essay 
always  seemed  to  justify  great  hopes.  The  Indian  lis- 
tened, argued,  seemed  to  be  concerned,  gave  his  children 
to  be  taught,  and  led  the  missionary  to  report  the  proba- 
ble conversion  of  his  whole  tribe.  But  always,  just 
when  the  project  seemed  most  hopeful,  an  indiscrimi- 
nate massacre  of  missionaries  and  converts  together 
swept  the  enterprise  out  of  existence.  The  experience 
of  all  was  the  same.^  Jesuit,  Churchman,  Puritan, 
Moravian,  and  Presbyterian  missions  all  had  the  same 
issue.  Their  light  was  put  out  in  blood  on  the  Mo- 
liawk,  the  James,  the  Connecticut,  and  tlie  Wabash. 
The  "  great  massacre  "  is  the  last  chapter  in  the  liistory 
of  the  Indian  mission  in  early  days.  Tliey  were  irre- 
claimable as  yjanthers.  With  intellectual  endowment 
far  beyond  that  of  any  other  savage  race,  they  were 
marked  by  the  two  qualities  of  treacliery  and  cruelty 
to  an  indescribable  degree.  To  love  his  enemy  and  to 
speak  the  truth  seems  to  have  been  to  the  Indian  con- 

1  Parkman :  Discovery  of  the  Great  West,  p.  275. 
5  Ibid.,  p.  2(j. 


8  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

genitally  impossible.  In  any  case,  this  was  true  until 
tliey  became  reduced  to  helplessness  two  centuries  and 
a  half  later,  by  being  surrounded  and  disarmed.  Tliis 
fierce  and  hateful  people  roamed  over  the  land  in  which 
a  Christian  church  and  nation  was  to  grow.  Tliey  had 
Ownership  of  ^^^  ownership  in  it,  in  the  way  we  understand 
the  soil.  tlie  term.     The  tribes  lived  far  apart.     Each 

had  for  its  own  hunting-grounds  the  territory  from 
which  it  was  not  barred  by  its  rivals.  Each  looked 
with  jealousy  upon  all  interlopers,  but  each  was  prompt 
to  act  as  an  interloper  when  occasion  offered.  Every 
good  hunting-ground  was  claimed  by  many  tribes.  It 
was  rare  indeed  that  au}^  tribe  had  an  uncontested  title 
to  a  tract  of  land,  and  where  such  a  title  did  exist  it 
rested,  not  on  an  actual  occupancy  and  cultivation,  but 
on  the  recent  butchery  of  weaker  rivals.^  It  is  within 
the  truth  to  say  that  the  only  title  of  any  value  either  in 
law  or  morals  which  Indians  have  ever  possessed  is  that 
given  them  by  the  people  whom  they  fought  for  centuries, 
to  the  Reservations  where  the  remnant  of  them  now  live. 

From  whence  will  come  settlers  hardy  enough  to 
occupy  this  richly  furnished,  but  savage  and  perilous 
stage?  To  answer  this  we  must  cross  the  ocean  and  see 
the  colonists  in  their  old  homes. 

Within  ten  years  of   IGOO  two  events  occurred  in 

England  which  set  in  motion  the  emigration  to  America. 

They  were:    (1)    The  treaty  of   peace  with 

Occasion  of  "  ■,         c  p    ^ 

theemigra-  Spaiu.^  (2)  The  revived  enforcement  oi  the 
*'°°-  Acts    of    "Uniformity"    and    "Supremacy." 

The  way  they  operated  was  as  follows :  — 

1  Roosevelt:  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  i.  p.  88. 

2  The  Peace  was  concluded  Aug.  18,  1604. 


CAPTAIN   JOHN   SMITH 


THE   STAGE.  9 

For  three  generations  England  had  been  at  war  by 
sea  and  by  land.  The  need  of  the  belligerent  times 
had  created  a  class  of  men  whose  trade  was  warfare. 
•'  Sea  dogs,"  like  Frobisher,  Drake,  Hawkins,  and 
Hudson  with  their  hardy  crews,  holding  letters  of 
marque  from  the  Protestant  Princes  of  Europe,  or  com- 
missions from  the  Crown,  had  learned  sailing  and  fight- 
ing as  a  craft.  Soldiers  of  fortune  like  Raleigh,  Smith, 
and  Standish  had  carried  their  swords  to  market  in 
every  Protestant  State  in  Europe.  Each  captain  with 
his  ship  and  crew,  each  swash-buckler  with  liis  band  of 
musketeers  at  his  heels,  made  his  own  bargain,  or  hired 
out  his  ship  and  guns  to  serve  in  any  quarrel  which  his 
somewhat  tough  conscience  would  allow  him  to  espouse. 
They  Avere  soldiers  by  profession  and  training,  one 
might  almost  say  by  birth.  They  had  swept  around 
the  British  Isles  chasing  the  Armada,  and  had  fought 
against  the  Spaniard  in  the  Low  Countries,  and  against 
the  Turk  on  the  plains  of  Hungary.  Now,  the  un- 
wonted experience  of  a  peace  with  their  hereditary  foe 
left  them  without  employment.  With  their  crews  and 
their  companies  they  were  thrown  upon  the  world  to 
earn  a  livelihood.  There  was  no  place  for  them  in 
England.  The  England  of  1600  was  not  the  mighty 
empire  of  industry  and  commerce  that  it  is  to-day. 
London  was  a  town  smaller  in  size  and  with  less  than 
half  the  wealth  of  Denver  or  Hartford.  Bristol  and 
Plymouth,  the  places  next  in  importance,  were  such  as 
Norwich,  Conn.,  or  Norfolk,  Va.,  are  to-day.  There 
was  but  little  commerce ;  manufactures  were  of  the 
rudest,  and  agriculture    the    most   primitive.     Wolves 


10  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IN   THE  COLONIES. 

were  still  dangerous  within  a  day's  ride  on  liorseback 
of  London.  Swamps  and  fens  held  the  places  wliere 
cities  now  stand.  Wild  cattle  were  still  found  in  the 
north.  The  farmer  lived  in  a  wattled  and  clay-covered 
house.  The  country  was  too  small  and  too  poor  to 
absorb  and  provide  for  the  multitude  of  soldiers  and 
sailors  out  of  occupation  through  the  unwonted  peace. 
The  sea-dog  therefore  became  an  explorer,  and  the  sol- 
dier of  fortune  was  ready  to  guard  the  peaceful  colonist. 
The  revival  of  the  "  Act  of  Uniformity "  at  the 
same  juncture  made  England  an  uncomfortable  place 
ActofUni-  ^o^"  nearly  one-half  of  her  population.  The 
formity.  ^q^,    provided    that    every    congregation    of 

Christian  people,  in  its  public  worship,  must  use  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  according  to  its  rubrics.  The 
Prayer-Book  was  distasteful  to  a  large  proportion  of 
the  people,  for  various  reasons.  A  few  opposed  it 
on  principle  as  being  Romish.  To  their  minds  the 
Reformation  in  England  had  stopped  midway  to  comple- 
tion. They  thought  they  saw  in  the  authorities,  civil 
and  ecclesiastic,  a  disposition  to  bring  in  again  the  evils 
of  papal  times.  They  had  for  their  ideal  the  church  in 
Geneva  and  Frankfort  as  fashioned  by  Calvin  and 
Farel.  The  Prayer-Book  imposed  upon  them  by  law 
—  a  law  enforced  by  tire,  stocks,  jail,  and  banishment  — 
seemed  to  them  to  be  in  its  very  words  and  structure  a 
league  with  death  and  a  covenant  with  hell.  Their  ob- 
jection was  not  only  an  abstract  one  against  the  attempt 
to  enforce  uniformity  in  worship,  but  also  against  the 
Prayer-Book  which  wa;  imposed.  The}'  believed  its 
doctrine  to  be  dangerous  to  souls.     Tliis  class  was  not 


THE   STAGE.  11 

large,  but  was  active,  learned,  and  filled  with  a  sullen 
determination.  But  there  was  a  far  larsrer  class  who 
were  led  by  prejudice  and  by  customary  usage  to  the 
same  stand.  The  Act  seemed  to  them  to  be,  as  indeed 
it  was,  a  taking  away  of  the  hereditary  right  of  Eng- 
lishmen.i  Uniformity  of  worship  had  never  been 
known  in  England.  A  variety  of  uses,  as  York, 
Sarum,  Bangor,  and  Hereford,  had  prevailed  unques- 
tioned up  to  within  less  than  half  a  century  of  this 
time.  In  the  early  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign  there  had 
been  little  change  in  the  manner  of  public  worship,  of 
the  sort  which  would  strike  the  eye  of  the  common 
worshipper.  But  for  nearly  a  generation  great  confu- 
sion had  existed.  In  some  parishes  the  service  was 
not  distinguishable  from  the  Roman  mass,  and  in  others 
from  a  Presbyterian  nieeting.  In  one  parish  the  Holy 
Table  was  set  up  against  the  east  wall  altarwise,  and  in 
another  set  out  ''  like  an  oyster  board  "  in  the  aisle.  In 
one  parish  a  celibate  priest  officiated  in  cope  and  chasu- 
ble, while  in  the  next  a  married  priest  held  forth  in  his 
coat,  while  his  wife  wore  tlie  embroidered  vestments 
for  a  petticoat.  Tliis  state  of  things  Ijecame  intolera- 
ble to  the  authorities  of  the  Church.  They  essayed  to 
cure  it  by  violence,  and  failed.  But  they  did  more 
than  fail.  By  the  attempt  they  destroyed  the  Church 
Effect  to  of  England  as  a  National  Church.  For  a 
NaUonaf  ^^^  thousand  years  before  tliat  time  tlie  Church 
Church.  and  the  Nation  had  been  one.      From   that 

time  forward  the  Church  of  England  ceased  to  be  the 
Church  of  the  English-speaking  people.     The  confusion 

1  Anderson  :  History  of  the  English  Churcli  in  the  Colonies,  vol.  i.  p.  99. 


12         THE  ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

which  was  attempted  to  be  cured  by  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity was  a  grave  evil.  No  man  could  then  see  to 
what  greater  evils  it  might  grow.  The  attempt  to 
secure  order  by  force  commended  itself  to  wise  and 
good  men.  It  is  not  necessary  to  accuse  the  Church's 
officers  of  conscious  tyranny.  They  used  what  seemed 
to  them  the  simjjlest  and  most  efficacious  method  at 
hand.  Time  has  shown  their  fearful  blunder.  They 
meant  to  act  as  statesmen ;  they  acted  as  doctrinaires. 
The  confusion  of  the  time  was  but  the  restless  exu- 
berance of  the  incoming  spiritual  life  to  a  half-dead 
Church.  In  time  its  excesses  would  have  righted  them- 
selves. The  attempt  to  secure  uniformity  in  worship 
has  only  been  successful,  even  within  the  Church,  at 
those  times  when  its  life  has  been  at  the  lowest.  Every 
outburst  of  religious  vigor  has  either  strained  the  uni- 
formity or  broken  a  fragment  from  the  Church.  The 
Puritan,  the  Presbyterian,  the  Quaker,  and  the  Methodist 
have  each  in  their  turn  been  lost  to  the  Church  which 
is  their  home,  by  making  the  house  too  strait  for  them. 
After  two  hundred  and  eighty  years  the  assembled 
Bishops  of  the  whole  Pan-Anglican  Communion  have 
recorded  their  judgment  that  unifoi-mity  in  discipline 
and  worship  is  not  only  not  to  be  compelled,  but  not  to 
be  expected.  They  declare  with  a  unanimous  voice, 
that  with  consensus  upon  the  Creed,  the  Scriptures,  the 
Sacraments  administered  in  our  Lord's  own  words,  and 
the  historical  Episcopate,  the  people  are  to  be  left  to 
the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  which  Christ  has  promised  to 
His  Church.  The  lesson  has  taken  long  to  learn,  and 
the  teaching  has  been  most  costly.     It  cost  the  Church 


THE   STAGE.  13 

of  England  first  the  good-will,  and  then  the  presence, 
of  those  who  carried  away  from  her  enough  of  devotion 
and  vigor  to  found  a  new  Nation  and  alien  Churches. 

Here,  then,  in  1600,  were  all  the  elements  waiting 
from  which  to  create  a  new  world.  A  fertile  continent 
waiting  to  be  settled ;  a  righteous  and  virile  people,  ill 
at  ease  at  home,  for  colonists ;  adventurous  captains 
with  their  ships  and  crews  ready  to  transport  them  ; 
professional  soldiers  ready  at  hand  to  garrison  the  new 
colonies,  and  figlit  against  their  savage  foes.  The  flood 
of  immigration  approached  America  like  the  coming  in 
of  tlie  tide.  Its  first  waves  touched  only  the  nearest 
shore,  and  receded.  Many  unrecorded  bands  of  adven- 
turers visited,  and  quickly  left  the  coast,  from  New- 
foundland to  Georgia.  The  story  of  each  is  romantic, 
but  not  to  the  purpose  here.^ 

'  Baucroft :  History  of  the  U.  S.,  vol.  i.  pussim. 


14         THE   ENGLISH  CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   VIRGINIANS. 

The  first  organized  attempt  to  found  a  colony  was 
made  in  1585.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  gathered  a  company 
Raleigh's  ^f  one  hundred  and  fifty  people,  largely 
colony.  composed  of  gentlemen  of  the  sword,  secured 

them  an  outfit  and  the  means  of  transportation,  which 
they  used  to  find  a  land  at  Roanoke  which  they  named 
"  Virginia,"  for  the  maiden  queen.  They  were  not 
the  stuff  from  which  successful  colonists  are  made. 
They  Avere  not  set  together  in  families.  Only  two 
women  were  in  the  colony.  Of  one  of  these,  the 
daughter  of  the  Governor,  was  born  Virginia  Dare,  the 
first  white  child  in  America.  Improvidence,  brawling, 
ignorance  of  husbandry,  and  wanton  quarrels  with  the 
natives,  soon  brought  the  ill-starred  colony  to  want, 
destitution,  and  despair.  Their  governor.  White,  strove 
manfully  to  save  them  from  the  Indians  and  from  them- 
selves, but  in  vain.  They  sat  down  starving  upon  the 
shore,  and  when  at  their  Avits'  end,  liailed  the  sight  of 
an  English  man-of-war  on  her  way  home  from  the  West 
Indies.  Her  commander  consented  to  bear  away  with 
him  those  who  wished  to  go,  and  promised  to  send 
speedy  succor  to  those  who  stayed.  The  chaplain  of 
the  ship  landed  and  baptized  the  little  baby  girl,  Vir- 
ginia Dare,  together  with  Manteo,  the  first  convert  from 


THE   VIRGINIANS.  15 

the  Indians.  Tliese  were  the  tii'st-fruits,  not  only  of  the 
Church  of  England,  but  of  Christianity,  in  the  colonies. 
Eighty  of  tlie  company  chose  to  stay,  while  the  rest 
sailed  away  to  merry  England.  Those  who  stayed,  in- 
cluding the  two  women,  were  never  heard  of  again. 
Their  promised  relief  never  came,  or  came  so  many 
years  later  tliat  no  living  member  of  the  colony  was 
found.  Half  a  century  afterward  Indians  with  blue  eyes 
and  brown  hair  were  seen  along  the  Potomac,  who  were 
supposed  to  have  in  their  veins  all  that  was  left  of  the 
blood  of  the  Raleigh  colony. 

In  1603  a  ship's  company  spent  the  summer  in 
Plymouth  Harbor,  on  the  coast  of  Massachusetts,  but 
made  no  permanent  lodgement. 

In  the  spring  of  1605  a  company  landed  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Kennebec.  While  the  summer  lasted  the}'  throve 
Gorges'  i^^  ^lie  cabins  and  little  garden  patches  which 

colony.  they  planted,  but  in  the  long,  bleak  winter 

which  followed  they  were  reduced  to  starvation  and 
despair,  and  returned  hungry  to  England,  carrying  with 
them  three  Indian  chieftains.  These  were  taken  in 
charge  by  a  wealthy  gentleman  and  zealous  ('hurchman. 
Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges.  For  three  years  he  kept  them 
in  his  house,  teaching  them  English,  and  learning 
from  them  about  their  people.  Then  he  organized  an 
expedition  at  his  own  charge,  and  brought  it  out  him- 
self, landing  again  at  the  Kennebec  in  the  summer  of 
1606.  By  the  time  winter  came  his  company  had  built 
a  fort,  a  log  church,  and  fifty  cabins.  This  settlement 
of  Churchmen  maintained  a  precarious  existence  for 
many   years ;    indeed,    it   never   became    quite    extin- 


10  THE   ENGLISH   CHUiiCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

guished.  But  it  had  for  its  enemies  a  cruel  climate 
and  a  barren  soil,  and  a  few  years^  later  the  relentless 
enmity  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritans.  The  Church 
has  had  there  a  longer  continuous  existence  than  in  any 
other  place  in  America,  but  it  did  little  more  than  live. 
It  never  became  a  colony,  and  hardly  an  organized 
church.  It  served  for  a  century  only  to  keep  the 
lamp  of  the  Church  showing  a  flickering  light  in  the 
New  England. 

All  the  "•  ventures,"  so  far,  were  without  recognition 
from  either  Cluirch  or  State.  They  were  the  enterprises 
of  individuals  or  companies  v/ithout  either  political 
status  or  ecclesiastical  authority. 

It  was  to  Virginia  first  that  the  Church  and  State  of 
England  were  to  l)e  transplanted.  Raleigh's  ill-fated 
The  Virginia  company  had  never  been  quite  forgotten. 
Company.  Relief  expeditions  had  been  projected,  and 
had  come  to  nothing,  until  it  was  deemed  too  late  to 
rescue  tliem.  But  the  memory  of  the  flowery  banks  and 
fertile  meadows  of  Albemarle  had  never  quite  passed 
away.  London  merchants  thought  of  it  as  a  new  field 
for  trade,  liisliops  and  clergy  thought  of  the  Indians 
as  heathen  to  be  saved.  Statesmen  had  it  in  mind  as  a 
place  wherein  to  found  new  states.  All  England  then 
dreamed  of  colonies.  A  company  was  formed,  with 
archbisho^is,  peers,  merchants,  and  high  officers  of 
state  for  its  members.  Captain  John  Smith,  who  had 
come  home  from  fighting  the  Turk  under  the  walls  of 
Constantinople,  was  secured  as  the  military  commander. 
The  good  priest  Robert  Hunt  was  commissioned  chap- 
lain.    Tlie  Crown  gave  a  grant  of  land  from  34°  to  45° 


THE   VIRGIXIAXS.  17 

north  latitude,  —  from  the  Bay  of  Fuiidy  to  South  Caro- 
lina. Substantial  Churchmen,  with  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren and  goods,  offered  for  colonists.  Prayers  were 
said  in  churches  for  the  safety  of  the  expedition.  With 
the  bishop's  benediction,  the  king's  favor,  and  the  peo- 
ple's good-will,  they  sailed  away.  Their  plan  was  to 
take  up  again  Raleigh's  alxxndoned  settlement,  and  they 
were  not  without  hope  of  being  welcomed  by  some  of 
his  people,  who  might  still  be  living.  But  the  fleet  lost 
its  reckoning,  and,  instead  of  making  a  landfall  at  Albe- 
marle, they  sailed  into  Chesapeake  Bay  in  April,  1G07. 
They  named  their  settlement  for  the  king,  Jamestown. 
By  their  charter  the  Law  and  the  Church  of  England 
were  made  bounden.  Their  first  act,  on  landing,  was 
to  kneel  and  hear  Chaplain  Hunt  read  the  prayers  and 
thanksgiving  for  a  safe  voyage.  It  is  not  our  task  to 
trace  the  civil  and  industrial  prosperity  of  the  colony. 
Their  church  was  built  as  soon  as  their  cabins  were,  and 
The  first  ^^  ^^^^y  movcd  into  better  houses  God's  house 
church.  ^yj^g  adorned  to  correspond.    Their  first  sanctu- 

ary was,  the  chaplain  writes,  "  a  pen  of  poles  with  a  sail 
for  a  roof,  and  for  a  pulpit  a  bar  lashed  between  two  con- 
venient trees."  In  this  rude  temple  the  Holy  Communion 
was  celebrated  for  the  first  time  in  America,  according 
to  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church,  June  21,  1607. 

Virginia  was  marked  off  from  the  settlements  soon 
to  follow  by  two  things,  —  it  was  a  royal  colony,  and  a 
Church  one.  It  was  simply  a  little  English  parish, 
bringing  its  minister,  its  Prayer-Book,  its  customs,  and 
its  thoughts,  to  set  them  down  in  the  midst  of  an  un- 
occupied land.     It  set  about  to  reproduce  the  old  home 


18  THE   EXGLLSII   CHUKCIl   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

life,  but  it  had  to  gain  by  bitter  experience  the  knowl- 
edge of  how  to  win  a  livelihood,  —  the  knowledge  which 
soon  Ijecame  a  second  nature  to  the  settlers.  They  had 
to  learn  how  to  deal  with  the  crafty  natives,  to  coax  a 
rich  land  to  yield  its  substance,  to  learn  new  modes  of 
husbandry,  to  adjust  themselves  to  a  new  life.  The 
task  was  a  trying  one.  Cold,  drought,  malaria,  and 
hunger  brought  them  to  the  verge  of  despair,  Init 
through  it  all  good  Chaplain  Hunt  Avas  their  stay  and 
comfort.  If  they  were  in  perils  oft,  they  Avere  in  prayer 
oft.  At  times  they  despaired.  Once  they  determined 
to  abandon  the  enterprise,  but,  Avhile  they  were  gatlier- 
ing  to  embark,  the  long-look ed-f or  relief  ship  hove  in 
sight,  bearing  supplies  and  new  people.  The  shed  in 
which  the  prayers  had  wont  to  be  said  was  replaced  by 
a  more  comfortable  building,  of  which  the  chaplain 
speaks  with  grateful  pleasantry  as  '*  a  homely  thing 
like  a  barn,  set  on  cratchets,  covered  with  rafters,  sods, 
and  brush." 

A  wide-spread  and  deep  interest  was  created  in  the 

settlement  among  all   classes  at   home.     To   ''  have  a 

venture""  to  the  colonies  quickly  came  to  be 

English  in-  .  ^  ^  ^ 

terest  in  ven-  the  fasliion.  Ncw-comers  came  out  by  the 
score.  The  population  grew  apace.  Col- 
lections were  taken  by  the  Archbishop's  orders  in  the 
province  of  Canterbury  for  the  Church  in  Virginia. 
One  sent  Bibles  and  Prayer-Books,  and  another,  Com- 
munion plate.  Chaplain  Hunt  did  not  long  remain  the 
only  priest.  Others  came  as  they  were  needed.  These 
first  clergy  were  godly  and  well-learned  men,  —  differ- 
ing widely  from  the  clerical  adventurers  who  succeeded 


THE   VIRGIXIAXS.  19 

them  a  generation  later.  Good  Church  people  at  home 
promoted  schemes  for  the  advantage  of  their  cousins  in 
the  Virginias.  One  society  undertook  to  provide  for 
them  wives  who  should  be  worthy  helpmeets  for  such 
men,  and  sent  them  over  at  a  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco 
a  head.  An  official  acknowledges  in  clerkly  phrase  the 
arrival  of  "two  shiploads  of  women  in  fair  condition." 

Their  religious  duty  to  the  aborigines  was  not  neg- 
lected. The  good  priest  Alexander  Whittaker  gained 
Indian  mis-  ^^^'  lii^iself  the  title  of  "  Apostle  to  the  Inci- 
sions, ians."  Indian  children  were  secured  and 
placed  in  the  homes  of  the  settlers,  to  be  trained  in 
decency    and    Christianity.      Pocahontas,    the    comely 

daughter  of  the  unfriendly   chief  Powhatai), 
Pocahontas- 

was    secured.      The    newly   widowed    John 

Rolf  was  moved  alike  by  her. beauty  and*  her  heathenism, 
and  to  make  her  a  convert  took  her  to  wife.  Other 
missionaries  joined  Whittaker  in  his  work  among  the 
Virginians  and  in  the  forest.  They  reported  to  the 
autliorities  at  home  that  there  was  ever};-  jjromise  of 
bringing  these  heathen  soon  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
Gospel,  and  asked  for  still  more  men.  The  Indians 
were  friendly,  hospitable,  and  full  of  interest.  But 
before  the  missionaries'  report  reached  England  the 
treacherous  savages  burst  into  the  settlement,  with  the 
great  massacre  of  jNIay "  22,  1622.  Missionaries,  con- 
verts, and  frontier  settlers  were  all  alike  butchered,  and 
the  work  came  to  an  end.  It  had  run  swiftly  through 
all  the  phases  which  characterized  the  projects  to  Chris- 
tianize the  Indians  for  two  centuries  and  more. 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  Virginia  was  the  only 


20         THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IN   THE   COLONIES. 

place  where  a  colony  of  Church  peo})le  lived  their  life 
in  the  presence  of  hostile  savages.  The  Puritans  on 
the  banks  of  the  Connecticut,  tlie  Moravians  in  the 
valley  of  the  W3^oniing,  the  Presbyterians  on  the  Alle- 
ghany, and  the  Baptists  on  the  Ilolston  and  the  Tennes- 
see bore  their  rifles  with  them  to  Church  and  gathered 
their  corn  while  listening  for  the  dreaded  war-whoop. 
But,  save  in  the  early  da3's  of  Virginia,  this  was  never 
the  experience  of  Churcli  of  England  people.  There 
are  no  Boones  and  Crocketts,  Robertsons  and  Clarkes 
in  the  annals  of  the  American  Church.  People  of 
another  faith  soon  passed  beyond  them  and  formed  a 
barrier  behind  wliich  the  Churchman  was  safe  from 
this  peril.  But  as  the  Churchman  was  shut  off  from 
the  danger,  so  he  was  shut  out  from  the  kindly  fellow- 
feeling  which  bound  together  the  other  peoples  who 
through  generations  shared  a  common  peril.  This  lack 
of  sympathy  deepened  into  rooted  malevolence  when  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years  later  the  British  government,  to 
whom  the  Church  was  bound,  took  for  allies  the  un- 
speakable savages  whom  the  Baptists  and  Presbyterians 
had  been  fighting  with  for  four  generations. 

Virginia  soon  recovered  from  the  massacre  of  1622. 
The  colonist  had  learned  his  foe.  Their  valiant  Cap- 
tain Smith  scouted  along  the  frontiers  and  carried  the 
war  into  the  enemy's  country.  When  he  was  about  to 
start  upon  an  expedition  into  the  backwoods  he  received 
from  the  authorities  orders  that  "every  day  the  Prayers 
should  Ije  read,  with  a  psalm,"  at  wliich  order  being 
carried  out  he  gravely  records  that  "  the  salvages  were 
mightily  amazed."' 


THE   VIRGINIANS.  21 

Meanwhile  the  colony  had  grown  apace.  Two  thou- 
sand immigrants  arrived  in  a  single  j^ear.  Land-hunters 
pushed  up  the  James,  the  Chickahominy,  and  the  York. 
New  settlements  were  planted  and  new  parishes  organ- 
ized. The  Church  at  home  was  mindful  of  its  duty, 
and  clergy  came  as  fast  as  they  were  needed.  In  1G19, 
there  were  enough  counties  settled  to  send  delegates 
First  repre-  ^^'^^^  organized  the  first  representative  as- 
sentative  as-    sembly  in  America.     Thev  met  to  establish 

sembly.  ""       . 

selt-government  on  this  continent.  By  a 
strange  irony,  while  they  were  in  session,  a  Dutch  ship, 
the  ''  Jesus,*'  brought  to  Jamestown  and  sold  the  first 
cargo  of  African  slaves.^ 

With  the  civil  legislation  of  the  Assembly  we  are  not 
directly  concerned.  But  their  acts  relating  to  religion 
show  a  vivid  picture  of  the  place  and  time.  It  was 
enacted  -  that :  — 

Care  should  be  taken  by  the  officers  that  the  people 
resort  to  church  on  the  Sabbath  Day,  the  penalty  of 
Laws  con-  '^^^■'^^"^6  to  be  a  pouud  of  tobacco,  or  for  a 
cernin?  re-  month's  absence  fifty  pounds  ;  that  all  who 
till  the  gi'ound,  of  what  quality  soever,  pay 
tithes  to  the  minister;  that  there  be  throughout  the 
colony  an  uniformity  of  Doctrine  and  Worship;  that 
JMinisters  and  Church  Wardens  present  to  the  Midsum- 
mer Assizes  a  return  of  official  acts,  and  also  the  names 
and  offences  of  all  persons  of  profane  and  ungodly  life, 
common  swearers,  drunkards,  blasphemers,  neglecters 
of  the  Sacraments,   Sabbath-breakers,  adulterers,  forni- 

1  Williams :  History  of  Negro  Race  in  America,  vol.  i.  p.  116. 

2  Anderson  :  vol.  i.  p.  4(J0. 


22  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IX   THE   COLONIES. 

cators,  slanderers,  and  also  of  all  Masters  and  Mis- 
tresses who  neglect  to  catecliise  their  children  and 
servants ;  that  no  man  shall  disparage  or  speak  lightly 
of  a  Magistrate  or  Minister,  or  Ije  married  other  than  by 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer ;  that  Ministers  shall 
preach  at  each  of  their  stations  at  least  once  a  jeav ; 
that  they  shall  visit  any  one  who  is  dangerously  sick ; 
sliall  administer  the  Sacrament  at  least  three  times  a 
year ;  shall  not  drink  to  excess,  dice  or  play  cards  for 
money ;  that  each  minister  shall  have  a  hundred  pounds 
of  tobacco  per  year,  and  also  the  twentieth  calf,  pig,  and 
kid,  these  to  be  kept  by  the  owner  till  w^eaned  and  tlien 
rendered  by  the  Church  Warden  at  a  time  and  place 
publicly  fixed ;  that  if  the  Church  Warden  fail  to  render 
them  the  value  be  collected  from  him  by  distress  ;  that 
the  fee  for  each  marriage  shall  be  t^^■o  shillings,  for 
christening  nothing,  for  churching  one  shilling,  and  for 
burying  one  shilling ;  that  the  cost  of  raising  and  re- 
pairing churches  shall  be  assessed  upon  the  parishes ; 
that  the  members  of  tlie  Legislature  shall  attend  Divine 
Service  "  upon  the  thyrde  beatinge  of  a  drume  "  under 
a  fine  of  two  shillings  sixpence. 

The  resemblance  of  these  enactments  of  the  Episco- 
palians of  Virginia  to  those  soon  to  be  passed  by  the 
Spirit  of  the  l^^^i'itan  colouy  of  Massachusetts  will  sug- 
laws.  ggg^  itself  at  once.     But  when  the  two  legis- 

lations come  to  be  compared,  both  in  matter  and  in 
spirit,  the  difference  will  l)e  still  more  evident.  They 
both  trespass  upon  wdiat  seems  to  us  to  be  liberty  of 
conscience.     But  there  is  an    inquisitory  particularity 


THE   VIRGINIANS.  23 

of  interference  with  personal  rights,  and  a  savage  religi- 
osity, in  tiie  Puritans"  laws,  which  is  not  present  in  those 
of  the  Churchmen.  They  approached  their  task  of  law- 
making with  radically  different  tempers  and  purposes. 
The  Virginians  were  content  Avhen  they  had  made  such 
regulations  as  they  deemed  necessary  to  the  well-beino- 
of  society.  The  Puritans  felt  themselves  responsible 
for  the  present  and  eternal  destiny  of  tlie  individual. 
The  Churchmen  legislated  for  this  life  only,  and  had 
sufficient  understanding  to  fulfil  their  task  fairly  well. 
The  Puritans  legislated  for  the  life  eternal.  It  was 
because  they  encroached  uj^on  the  prerogatives  of  God 
that  they  made  liavoc  of  men. 

At  first  the  acts  of  the  Assembly  were  easily  en- 
forced;  in  fact  they  enforced  themselves.  They  but 
expressed  the  wishes  of  the  people  in  the  premises. 
But  with  the  increase  of  immigration  the  character  of 
the  population  changed.  At  first  it  Avas  all  of  those 
who  were  emphatically  "  for  Church  and  Crown."  The 
wives  kindly  sent  out  to  the  settlers  were  all  Church- 
women.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  their 
patron,  and  the  Bishop  of  London  was  a  director  in  the 
company.  But  as  the  country  opened  up,  and  the 
tobacco  and  fur  trade  became  more  lucrative,  men  of 
another  sort  began  to  come.  Men  who  sat  loosely  to 
both  Church  and  Crown  came  for  fortunes,  and  Puri- 
tans and  Quakers  came  for  broader  liberty.  These  last 
were  not  molested.  The  not  very  onerous  tax  needed 
to  support  the  Establishment,  regularly  levied,  was 
paid  by  them  without  any  evidence  of  reluctance.     A 


24  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

man  in  A'^irginia  was  much  more  ready  to  pay  his  tax  to 
support  a  Church  whose  advantages  for  himself  and  his 
chikh'on  lie  could  have  for  the  asking,  than  was  a  man 
in  Massachusetts  to  support  an  Establishment  whose 
spiritual  l)enefactions  were  denied  him  until  he  should 
first  pass  a  rigorous  examination  as  to  his  own  spiritual 
state.  What  men  always  and  everywhere  rebel  against 
is  the  application  of  a  human  test  to  separate  the  sheep 
from  the  goats.  In  Massachusetts  the  slieep  were 
marked  and  goats  were  branded.  In  A^irginia  sheep 
and  goats  were  both  alike  shorn  for  the  support  of  the 
fold  which  was  open  to  them  both.  Little  Iw  little  the 
Relaxation  of  ^li^^i't'l^  relaxed  its  laws,  and  we  must  say 
manners.  aho,  its  manners.  Plantation  life  grew  easy 
and  abundant.  Theology  never  throve  in  it.  The 
clergy  began  to  be  planters  on  their  own  account,  and 
were  content,  for  the  most  part,  to  be  good  men  and 
good  neighbors.  Missionary  zeal  slowly  died  out.  The 
Dissenters  built  their  meeting-houses  undisturbed,  some- 
times aided  by  the  gift  of  a  generous  slice  of  laud  from 
the  parson's  own  plantation.  Colonel  Esmond  is  a  fair 
type  of  the  Virginia  Churchman,  who  began  to  be  seen 
lialf  a  century  earlier  than  Thackeray  places  him.  The 
colony  grew  to  be  peaceful,  prosperous,  and  safe.  Com- 
placent, with  no  very  exalted  ideals  either  in  religion 
or  morals,  its  general  loyalty  to  Church  and  Crown 
remained  unchanged.  When  the  Commonwealth  came, 
the  Vii'ginians  utterly  refused  to  recognize  the  disestab- 
lishment of  the  Church  in  England,  and  ignored  the 
Perfect  Model  of  the   ''  Saints."     At  the   Restoration 


THE   VIKGIXIANS.  25 

they  pursued  the  even  tenor  of  a  way  they  liad  never 
interrupted.  When  the  eighteenth  century  opened,  the 
Church  was  recognized  hy  the  hxw,  and,  upon  the  whole, 
contained  the  people,  of   the  colony. 

From  it  we  now  turn  to  look  at  that  rival  Enolish 
people  who  first  became  its  neiglibors  in  the  New 
World. 


26  THE   KNCJLISII    CIIUKCII   IX   THE   (OLUNIES, 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   PUEITAXS. 

To  comprehend  the  Puritans  in  Xew  England  we 
must  first  hx»k  at  them  in  Okl  Enghmd.  The  Acts 
of  "  Uniformity  "  and  "  Supremacy  "  precipitated  the 
confused  ecclesiastical  life  in  England  into  its  three 
component  ingredients,  Churchmen,  Romanists,  and  In- 
dependents. They  compelled  men  to  range  themselves. 
It  took  half  a  generation  for  tliem  to  find  out  definitely 
to  which  camp  each  belonged,  but  it  created  the  neces- 
sity for  an  ultimate  choice,  however  long  it  might  be 
})ostponed.  The  three  camps  were  very  unequal  in 
size.  The  Romanists  were  few  in  numbers  and  utterly 
discredited  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  in  point  of  their 
faith  and  their  loyalty. 

Churchmen  and  "•'  Puritans,"  liowever,  were  not  very 
unequal  in  weight  and  numljers.  Romanists  and  Puri- 
Not  unequal  ^'^^^^  Complained  of  the  same  grievances.  It 
division.  ^yj^^  the  ''  Supremacy  "  even  more  than  the 
"  Uniformity "  which  Inirdened  their  souls.  They 
might  possibly  have  l)orne  the  enforced  Liturgy,  which 
was  less  an  abomination  before  it  was  enforced.  This 
they  could  have  learned  to  endure,  and  might  have 
learned  to  love.  At  worst,  this  only  constrained  their 
conduct.  But  the  Supremacy  touched  their  souls.  To 
the  Romanist,  the  Supreme  Head  of   the  Church  was 


THE  ruiuTANS.  27 

Christ,  and  the  Pope  his  vice-gerent.  To  the  Puritan 
the  Supreme  Head  of  the  C'hui'ch  was  Christ,  and  He 
had  and  coukl  have  no  vice-gerent.  To  compel  one 
upon  his  faith  as  a  Christian  to  swear  allegiance  to  any 
secular  authority,  was  not  tolerable.  Romanist  and 
Puritan  alike  held  that  between  the  Church  and  the 
State  there  could  be  no  compact  made  as  between 
equals,  but  that  in  the  organization  of  society  the  secu- 
lar must  be  subordinate  to  the  spiritual.  The  Puritan 
could  not  find  it  in  his  conscience  to  answer  before  any 
civil  tribunal  for  his  religious  conduct,  much  less  to 
swear  upon  his  faith  as  a  Christian  that  he  would 
acknowledge  any  mortal  man,  even  though  he  be  King 
of  England,  as  '-'■  Supreme  Head  of  the  Church."  It  was 
worse  than  Popery  I  It  was  a  doctrine  of  devils  !  It 
was  Antichrist !  He  would  go  to  jail  first ;  he  would 
fight ;  he  would  emigrate,  and  found  a  society  where 
Antichrist  M'ould  not  be  allowed  to  exalt  himself  into 
the  seat  of  God ;  a  society  in  which  the  saints  should 
rule  as  they  had  the  right  to  reign. 

To  the  Churchman  this  position  was  incomprehensi- 
ble. To  his  mind,  England  w^as  simply  a  nation  cora- 
Churchmen's  P^sed  of  Christian  men,  in  Avhich  the  Cluirch 
theory.  .^jid  the    State  were    not   differentiated   and 

could  not  be.  The  King  as  head  of  the  realm  was  head 
of  the  Church,  ipso  facto.  To  quarrel  wdth  it  was  like 
quarrelling  with  the  structure  of  the  human  body  or  the 
solar  system.  The  man  who  did  so  must  either  be  mad 
or  have  some  sinister  motive  which  he  hid  behind  the 
plea  of  a  tender  conscience.  It  was  as  reasonable  and 
natural  for  Kino-  and  Parliament  to  decree  a  doctrine 


28         THE   ENGLISH    ('HITHCII    IN   THE   COLONIES. 

as  to  levy  a  tax,  to  punish  a  heretic  as  to  imprison  a 
thief,  —  for  were  they  not  both  offenders  against  the 
common  order  ?  For  any  man  to  boggle  at  avowing  his 
allegiance  to  the  powers  ordained  by  God,  was  to  avow 
himself  a  bad  citizen,  and  bad  citizens  should  be  made 
to  feel  the  hand  of  the  law. 

One  little  group  of  men  there  was  who  were  wise  be- 
yond their  time.  They  saw  even  then  that  religious  and 
secular  things  each  had  their  own  sphere. 
1  grims.  r^YiQj  perceived  that  while  the  Church  is  ''the 
blessed  company  of  all  faitliful  people,"  it  has  its  exist- 
ence in  a  w^orld  tilled  with  all  people.  They  saw  that 
while  Christians  live  in  the  State  they  must,  perforce, 
have  relations  with  it.  They  dreamed  of  no  theocracy 
where  the  saints  should  reign  as  the  chosen  of  God ; 
but  they  did  dream  of  a  state  where  the  things  that 
belong  to  God  and  the  things  that  belong  to  Caesar 
might  be  mutually  apportioned  in  peace.  Under  the 
lead  of  their  good  pastor,  John  Robinson,  a  priest  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  one  of  the  noblest  men  of 
his  own  or  any  time,  this  little  band  of  pilgrims  set 
upon  their  wanderings  in  search  of  their  new  Canaan. 
They  sought  it  first  in  Holland.  But  after  half  a  gen- 
eration their  hearts  turned  back  to  Merrie  England. 
They  wished  their  children  to  retain  their  mother 
tongue.  There  was  not  room  for  them  and  theirs  in 
the  dyke-belted  Low  Countries.  To  England  they 
could  not  return.  Their  thoughts  roved  over  the  sea  to 
where  the  English  flag  was  planted  on  an  unpossessed 
land.  The  good  ship  Mayflower  carried  them  away, 
and  in  1620  they  landed  in  Plymouth  Bay.     But  they 


THE   PURITANS.  29 

were  men  born  out  of  due  time.  Their  little  company 
never  grew  large.  Their  pious  leader  said  of  them,  more 
truly  than  he  knew,  that  ''they  knew  they  were  pilgrims, 
and  looked  not  much  on  the  things  of  earth,  but  lifted 
up  their  eyes  to  heaven,  their  dearest  country,  and 
quieted  their  spirits."  ''  Deeply  touched  as  all  must  be 
by  the  idj-llic  grace  of  the  story  of  the  Pilgrims,  and 
pleasant  as  it  is  to  linger  over  it,  yet  candor  compels  us 
to  acknowledge  that  the  true  genesis  of  New  England 
life  is  not  to  be  traced  to  Plymouth,  and  that  the  Pil- 
grims had  no  direct  and  but  little  indirect  influence  in 
shaping  its  later  development."  i 

It  Avas  with  the  Puritan  colony  who  landed  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  in  1629  that  the  New  England  life  really 
The  Salem  began.  Five  ships  brought  them  over,  two 
colony.  liundred  and  fifty  strong.     The  projector  of 

the  enter])rise  was  Arthur  Lake,  the  Puritan  Bisliop  of 
Bath  and  Wells.  He  declared  that  if  he  were  not  so 
old  he  would  go  out  with  the  colony  himself.^  It  is 
interesting  to  speculate  wliat  might  have  been  the  de- 
velopment of  Puritan  New  England  if  Bishop  Lake  had 
come  !  But  all  the  colonists  were  members  of  the 
English  Church.  Tlieir  leader  was  Rev.  John  White, 
Vicar  of  Dorchester.  Francis  Skelton  of  Clare  Hall, 
and  Francis  Higginson  of  Jesus  College,  Cambridge, 
Episcopal  Ministers  both,  were  forward  in  the  enter- 
prise. Why,  then,  did  a  company  of  English  Church- 
men, led  by  priests,  and  with  a  bisliop  for  their  patron, 
leaving  home  with  words  of  love  for  their  Mother  on 

1  Bishop  Harris:  Cliristiaiiity  and  Civil  Society,  p.  95. 

2  Bancroft:  vol   i.  p.  2(J4,  last  edition. 


30  THE   ENGLISH  CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

their  lips,  become  her  sullen  and  relentless  foes  ?  It  is 
not  necessary  and  would  not  be  true  to  charge  them 
either  with  hypocrisy  or  ingratitude.  The  logic  of 
events  is  more  potent  than  the  theories  of  man.  The 
root  of  the  quarrel  was  partly  in  the  situation  and 
partly  in  the  unconscious  temper  of  the  men  them- 
selves. 

The  theory  of  England  was  that  every  subject  of  the 
realm  was  a  member  of  the  Church.    The  relation  estab- 
lished  a   mutual   obligation.     It  formed  the 
English  .  .  ^ 

theory  of  the  basis  for  protection  and  control  on  the  one 
side ;  it  created  the  duty  of  obedience  and 
support  on  the  jxirty  of  the  second  part.  The  King  was 
to  be  a  nursing  father  to  the  Church,  but  a  father  whose 
counsels  must  l)e  heeded  under  penalty.  The  leaders 
of  the  Church  naturally  subscribed  to  the  theory.  They 
were  fflad  to  believe  that  Church  and  State  were  each 
necessary  to  the  other,  but  they  made  the  sad  blunder 
of  identifying  the  State  with  the  Crown.  They  hailed 
as  almost  divine  wisdom  the  apothegm  of  the  "•  wisest 
fool  in  Christendom,"  when  he  summed  up  the  whole 
situation  in  his  famous  words,  "No  bishop,  no  king."  ^ 
They  established  the  ill-omened  conjunction  of  Episco- 
pacy and  jNIonarchy.  It  did  not  occur  to  them  that  the 
obverse  of  James  I's  aphorism  niiglit  sometime  be  deemed 
true,  —  No  king,  no  bishop.  It  seemed  to  them  that 
they  were  doing  well  and  wisely  by  linking  Episcopacy 
to  that  institution  which  seemed  to  the  world  of  their 


1  Graham:  Colonial  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  139. 
Whitgift  did  not  scruple  to  declare  that  "  undoubtedly  his  Majesty 
spoke  by  the  special  assistance  of  God's  Spirit." 


THE   rUlUTANS. 


81 


day  the  most  abiding  of  all  things.     But  their  mistake 
well  nigh  worked  ruin  to  the  Church.     It  led  it  to  form 
that  fatal  friendship  with  tlie   Stuarts   which  brought 
Episcopacy  into  discredit  with  half  of  England,  extin- 
guished it  in  Scotland,  and  made  it  impossible  for  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  in  America.    This  ill-starred  alliance 
remained  as  a  sentiment  many  a  year  after  it  had  degen- 
erated from  a  mere  mistake  of  judgment  to  a  very  inan- 
ity.    There  are  probably  not  wanting  Churchmen  even 
yet  who,  in  defiance   of  the  facts  of  history,  and  with 
slight  regard  for  the  honor  of  the  Ten  Commandments, 
still   thiidv    and   speak   of    "the  blessed  martyr,   King 
Charles."  ^     And  this  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that,  with 
the  single  exception  of  poor  Queen  Anne,  the  Church 
has   never  had  a  whole-hearted  friend  on  the  English 
throne,  from  the  time  of  James  I.  until  now. 

Now,  when  the  Puritans  left  England  they  uncon- 
sciously turned  their  backs  to  the  theory  upon  which 
„    ..         .    the  Church  had  taken  its  stand.     Even  had 

Puritans  and 

their  theory,  ^.he  theory  been  true,  it  would  have  been 
impossible  of  application  to  a  people  angered  for  other 
causes,  and  farther  away  from  the  machinery  of  govern- 
ment than  now  would  be  a  colony  on  Lake  Nyanza. 
When  they  landed,  and  saw  the  situation,  they  saw  they 
had  expatriated  themselves.  They  had  left  both  Church 
and  State  behind.  The  Episcopate,  by  becoming  the 
creature  of  the  Crown,  had  lost  its  power  to  follow  the 
Church's  children.     Had  the  English  Church  understood 

1  A  well-known  bishop,  still  living,  tells  of  a  Scotch  clergyman  who, 
while  visiting  in  this  country,  was  asked  by  him  before  going  to  Church, 
if  he  would  object  at  all  to  reading  the  Prayer  for  the  President. 

"  Hoot,  man,"  was  his  reply,  "  dinna  I  pray  for  the  Hoose  o'  Hanover  ?" 


32  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

then  what  both  her  fathers  and  her  sons  have  known, 
the  true  catholic  and  independent  foundation  of  the 
Church,  she  couLl  have  adjusted  her  spiritual  machinery 
to  this  and  all  the  colonies.  But  the  things  which  made 
for  her  peace  were  hid  from  her  eyes.  The  Salem  colony 
saw  at  once  what  it  took  the  people  of  Maryland  and 
Virginia  a  century  to  realize,  —  tliat  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, holding  the  theories  she  did,  could  never  become 
the  Church  of  the  colonies,  however  deeply  she  might 
yearn  over  her  departing  children. 

But  this  necessity  to  live  their  own  life,  apart  from 
their  old  relations,  was  realized  by  the  Puritans  quite  as 
much,  or  more,  through  their  temper  than  through  their 
understanding.  It  was  easy  for  them  to  reach  a  conclu- 
sion which,  though  logical,  was  entirely  in  accord  with 
their  wishes.  The  Puritan's  temper  has  been  his  bane. 
The  Puritan  ^^'lii^G  the  Churchman's  has  been  his  strong 
temper.  deliverer.     The  former  is  now  only  a  charac- 

ter in  history,  while  the  latter  is  a  present  force,  chiefly 
because,  in  the  long  run,  moral  qualities  win  over  intel- 
lectual ones.  In  the  long  and  weary  conflict  of  the 
Church  with  dissent,  —  that  conflict  precipitated  by  the 
Act  of  Uniformity,  patched  up  by  the  Toleration  Act  of 
1688,  and  only  ended  within  the  memory  of  living  men, 
—  the  strong  weapon  of  the  Church  has  been  a  certain 
broad  kindliness  of  spirit.  This,  in  the  Puritans,  was 
wanting.  Their  sour,  saturnine,  ultra-logical,  disputa- 
tious temper  led  them,  in  Massachusetts,  almost  at  once 
to  the  betrayal  of  their  principles.  They  had  come  to 
found  a  State.  Their  ill-regulated  enthusiasm  changed 
their  purpose,  and  they  set  about  to  found  a  Church. 


THE   rUKlTANS.  33 

The  prodigious  rapidity  of  growth  wliich  marks  the 
colony  shows  that  there  were  multitudes  like-minded  with 
them.  Immigrants  came  out  by  the  scores  and  hundreds. 
In  tlie  tenth  year  after  their  landing  at  Salem,  a  single 
fleet  of  twenty  ships  brought  three  thousand  at  one  time. 
Before  the  colony  was  twenty  years  old  it  had  pushed 
its  outposts  to  the  Connecticut,  and  planted  settlements 
at  Windsor  and  Hartford.  They  had  followed  the  coast 
to  Saybrook  and  New  Haven,  had  crossed  tlie  Sound  to 
Long  Island,  and  planted  a  settlement  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Housatonic. 

And  all  this  was  done  in  the  face  of  a  fierce  climate, 
a  sterile  soil,  ferocious  savages,  and  wild  beasts.  The 
grimness  of  the  Nature  where  they  struggled  repro- 
duced itself  again  in  tlie  tempers  of  the  men.  The 
kindly  Englishmen  of  old  Boston  and  Dorchester  became 
the  gloomy,  rigid  religionists  of  the  new  towns  which 
bore  the  old  names.  By  the  middle  of  the  century  they 
had  founded  fifty  towns  and  villages,  in  each  of  which 
the  ministers  and  magistrates  were  the  sterner  censors 
of  the  religion  and  manners  of  tlieir  stern  people.  From 
the  first  it  had  been  determined  that  none  but  godly 
members  of  the  Church  should  possess  the  rights  of 
citizenship.  This  accepted  principle  could  not  but 
beget  both  fanatics  and  hypocrites.  They  were  domi- 
nated by  tlie  idea  that  they  held  the  place  in  the  New 
World  wliich  the  chosen  people  of  God  had  held  in  the 
old  economy.  They  were  to  go  in  and  possess  the  land  ; 
to  destroy  utterly  the  old  Canaanites ;  not  to  permit  a 
witch  to  live ;  to  observe  all  the  commandments  and 
statutes  of  the  Lord  to  do  them.    They  would  have  none 


34  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH  IN   THE   COLONIES. 

but  Church-members  for  freemen.  They  called  their 
children  Patience,  Faith,  Prudence,  Deliverance,  Thank- 
ful, and  Hold-fast.  Their  laws  present  a  picture  of 
their  lives. ^  Roman  Catholics  and  Quakers  were  to  be 
banished,  and  upon  their  return  executed ;  shipmasters 
Puritan  were  forbidden  to  bring  in  any  of  that  ac- 

laws.  cursed  sect  or  their  writings ;  it  was  forbidden 

to  run  or  walk  on  the  Sabbath  Day,  except  "■  reverently 
to  meeting ;"  to  sweep  the  house,  to  cook,  or  to  shave; 
mothers  were  advised  not  to  kiss  their  children  on  the 
Lord's  Day;  adultery,  blasphemy,  and  idolatry  were 
punishable  by  death;  heresy  and  keeping  Christmas 
Day,  by  fine  and  the  stocks  ;  absence  from  public  wor- 
ship, by  fine  and  whipping ;  renouncing  Church  mem- 
bership, or  questioning  the  canonicity  of  any  book  in 
the  Bible,  by  fine  and  banishment ;  all  gaming  was  pro- 
hibited and  cards  and  dice  forbidden  to  be  imported ; 
dancing  anywhere,  and  kissing  a  woman  in  the  street, 
"  even  in  the  way  of  honest  salutation,"  was  punished 
by  flogging;  women  were  forbidden  under  penalty  of  im- 
prisonment to  wear  clothing  beyond  their  station  in  life, 
to  cut  their  hair  like  a  man ;  and  for  speaking  ill  of  the 
minister,  to  have  their  tongues  fastened  in  a  split  stick. 
Nor  were    these    decrees    empty  threats.^      Extracts 

1  It  is  hardly  needful  to  say  that  the  oft-quoted  "  Blue  Laivs'  are  of 
no  historic  value.     The  authorities  are,  — 

The  Book  of  General  Laws  and  Liberties;  by  authority  of  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  1640;  Printed  at  Cambridge  lOGO;  pp.  3,  8,  9,  2(J, 
33,  35,  38,69,  74;  Tiie  same,  revised  and  reprinted  by  Saml.  Green,  Cam- 
bridge 1672.  General  Laws  and  Liberties  of  Connecticut  ;  Revi.sed  and 
Published  by  order  of  General  Assembly;  Hartford  1672;  pp.  28,  37,  21. 
In  illustration  of  these  are  the  Abridgment  of  Ordinances  of  New  Eng- 
land ;  Neal ;  Hutchison ;  and  Graham:  Colonial  History  of  United  States. 
This  last  has  the  indorsement  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

2  Graham:  Colonial  History  of  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  189.     Note. 


THE   PURITANS.  3o 

from  the  early  records  of  the  Massachusetts  courts 
show  that  John  Wedgewood,  for  being  in  tlie  company 
of  drunkards,  is  ordered  to  sit  in  the  stocks  ;  Catherine, 
the  wife  of  Richard  Cornish,  was  found  suspicious  of 
light  conduct  and  admonished  to  take  heed;  Thomas 
Pettit,  for  suspicion  of  slander  and  stubbornness,  to  be 
severely  whipped ;  Josiah  Plaistowe,  for  stealing  four 
baskets  of  corn,  to  be  hereafter  called  by  the  name 
"  Josias  and  not  Mr.,"  as  heretofore.  A  farmer  in  the 
New  Hampshire  settlement  barely  escaped  excommuni- 
cation, by  confession  and  repentance,  for  having  killed 
a  bear  which  was  tearing  up  his  garden  on  Sunday. 

One  may  readily  suppose  that  this  unnatural  manner 
of  religious  life  would  revenge  itself.  "  Reliyentem 
esse  oportet,  non  religiosum.''''  The  constant  checking 
and  repression  of  the  natural  life  turned  men's  minds 
inward  upon  themselves.  The  hard  mechanical  service 
of  rule  was  more  than  they  could  bear.  The  story  of 
the  internal  revolts  against  it  has  often  been  told.  Tlie 
Baptists  challenged  it,  and  were  coldly  told  to  go  else- 
where. The  Quakers  provoked  it,  and  felt. the  dreadful 
weight  of  its  hand.  We  are  only  concerned  to  ask. 
How  shall  the  Church  of  England  find  a  lodgement  in 
such  a  society  ? 

There  is  a  feeble  little  settlement  of  Church  people 
on  the  Kennebec,  and  the  rapidly  developing  colony  in 
„,    ,.       -     Virginia,   but  these   have  their  hands  more 

Planting  of  ^ 

the  Church  in  than    full    with    their    own    affairs.      If   the 
ng  an  .  (;'j^^^,g|-^   -^   ^^   l^g  planted  in  New  England, 

Old  England  must  do  it.  No  one  would  have  prophe- 
sied in  1640  that  two  centuries  and  a'  half  later  the 


36  THE   ENGLISH    CHUKCH    IX    THE   COLONIES. 

most  rapid  growth  of  the  Episcopal  C'hiucli  would  be 
in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  Certainly  there 
was  nothing  then  to  indicate  it. 

When  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges'  son  Robert  brought  his 
little  colony  to  the  ''  Wessagusset "  in  1623,  an  English 
clergyman  was  in  the  company  as  chaplain.  In  the  late 
summer,  when  the  colonists'  cabins  had  been  built  and 
their  gardens  were  growing,  the  chaplain,  with  a  few 
companions,  went  for  a  visit  to  their  neighbors  at  Ply- 
mouth. The  first  summer  voyage  of  pleasure  along  the 
silent  coast  of  Maine  was  this.  The  good  Plymouth 
people  received  their  guests  with  a  hearty  welcome.  The 
best  they  had  was  set  before  them.  In  the  intolerable 
loneliness  of  the  grim  solitude,  a  visitor  was  a  godsend. 
The  talk  was  u})on  the  work  in  which  both  settlements 
were  engaged.  But  the  priestly  capacity  of  their  guest 
was  silently  ignored.  As  an  Englishman  and  a  feliow 
back^voodsman  they  w^ould  give  him.  of  their  best.  But 
when  the  Sunday  came  he  was  allowed  to  take  his  seat 
on  the  benches  while -their  own  pastor  held  forth.  The 
visit  was  not  greatly  prolonged  and  was  never  repeated. 

Even  at  that  early   day   there   were   Churchmen  in 
Massachusetts.     One  of  them,  John  Morton,  was  a  con- 
spicuous figure  in   the    earliest   settlements. 
John  Morton.   ^^  ^^^^^  ^^^^^^  ^  ^..^^^  ^^^^^^  ^^^^^  ^  generous  liver 

in  Eno-laud.  The  attractive  field  which  the  New  World 
offered  for  adventure  and  fortune  drew  him  as  it  did  so 
many  of  his  kind.  In  1623  he  took  up  a  plantation, 
including  the  present  town  of  Quincy.  He  brought 
with  him  thirty  servants,  stock,  utensils,  and  furniture. 
With  his  people  about  him,  on  the  fat  land  he  lived  a 


THE  rUllITANS.  37 

jolly  life.     Choleric,  devout,  profane,  and  generous,  he 
lived  in  Massachusetts  the  typical  English  squire.     A 
tall  pole  set  on  the  bluff  in  front  of  his  liouse  bore  an 
English  pennant.     On  Christmas  Day  abundant  roasts 
of  venison  and  mince  pies  galore  rejoiced  his  people. 
Every  morning  he  read  prayers  before  his  household, 
and  on  Sunday  acted  as  their  reader.     S^    long  as  the 
kindly  Pilgrims  were  his  only  neighbors,  there  was  no 
attempt   to   interfere   with   his   ways.     But  when    the 
Puritans  came  and  multiplied,  ^Morton's  manners  could 
no  longer  be  tolerated.     Presently  he  had  a  visit  from 
''that  worthy  gentleman,  John   Endicott,  of   Boston," 
who  grimly  ordered  the  flagpole  to  be  cut  down  and 
"to  look  to  it  there  should  be  better  walking."      ^Morton 
raged  and  fumed  and  Avas  roundly  fined  for  "  ungodly 
speech."     He  certainly  did  swear.     Pie  declared  in  a 
letter  to  a  friend,  "  I  found  in  these  parts  two  sets  of 
people,  Christians  ami   heathens,  and   these  last  more 
friendly  and  full  of  humanity."     He  refused  to  pay  his 
fine,  and  was  clapped  in  the  bilboes.     His  servants  and 
tenants  were  sharply  bi-ouglit  into  Puritan  order.     The 
stout  old  offender  himself  was   packed  off  to  England 
and  warned  to  stay  there.     His  offences  were  gravely 
asserted  to  be   these  two:  — being  "of  a  gay  humor," 
and  using  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.     To  the  mind 
of  the  Puritan  these  were  capital.     One  of  them  was  an 
offence  against  the  eternal  fitness  of  things,  and  the  other 
against  the  solemn  judgment  of  the  saints.     In  England 
Morton  was  foolish   enough  to  write  a  book  about  his 
American  neighbors.     A   copy  of  it  found  its  way  to 
Boston.     It  was  not  pleasant  reading  for  "  the  worthy 


38  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

Mr.  Endicott"  and  his  friends.  Still  more  foolishly, 
Morton  ventured  to  follow  his  book  himself,  and  came 
back  to  gather  up  the  fragments  of  his  estate.  He  had 
better  have  let  it  go.  No  sooner  had  he  returned  than 
he  was  seized  and  imprisoned.  Several  years  of  such 
discipline  broke  the  old  man's  spirit  and  heart  both,  and 
he  laid  him  down  and  died. 

In  the  original  Puritan  company  were  two  brothers. 
Brown  by  name,  a  lawyer  and  a  merchant,  who  declined 
The  Brown  to  join  in  the  action  by  which  the  company 
brothers.  separated  from  the  Church.  They  had  been 
born  and  reared  in  it,  like  all  the  others,  and  saw  no 
reason  why  they  should  turn  their  backs  upon  it. 
When  they  landed,  and  liad  built  their  little  cabins  in 
the  new  town  of  Salem,  they  continued  to  gather  their 
families  morning  and  evening,  and  read  with  them  the 
daily  prayers.  For  a  while  this  was  coldly  permitted 
by  their  neighbors.  But  presently  the  brothers  ven- 
tured to  gather  a  company  together  in  a  place  distinct 
from  the  public  assembly,  and  there  "  sundry  times  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  read  unto  such  as  resorted 
thither."  This  that  worthy  gentleman  Mr.  Endicott 
could  not  endure.  He  "  convented  "  the  brothers  be- 
fore himself  and  the  ministers.  Very  plain  speech 
ensued.  The  ministers  argued  that  the  enforced  use 
of  the  Prayer-Book  was  the  very  thing  they  had  not 
been  able  to  abide  on  the  otlier  side  of  the  water,  and 
that  it  would  be  the  height  of  folly  to  allow  it  to  creep 
into  a  place  of  honor  here.  The  Browns  replied,  re- 
minding them  of  the  language  they  themselves  had 
used  only  a  few  weeks  before,  when  they  had  solenmly 


THE   PURITANS.  39 

declared  that  they  had  no  notion  of  separating  from  the 
Church  their  mother,  but  only  to  protest  against  her 
abuses  and  corruptions.  The  Prayer-Book  they  cer- 
tainly could  not  call -a  corruption,  since  it  had  been 
used  till  lately  by  themselves,  and  was,  in  substance, 
either  the  words  of  God  or  of  godly  men.  They 
accused  the  ministers  openly,  and  not  politely— for 
they  were  sturdy  Englishmen,  these  Browns  —  of  being 
"separatists"  and  "Anabaptists."'  The  governor  and 
council,  however,  "  finding  these  two  to  be  of  high  spirit 
and  their  speeches  and  practices  tending  to  mutiny  and 
faction,"  —  the  governor  told  them  that  "New  England 
was  no  place  for  such  as  they."  The  governor  was 
quite  right.  The  New  England  of  that  time  was  no 
place  for  an}-  except  that  peculiar  people  wlio  had 
embarked  upon  their  religio-political  experiment,  nor 
would  it  be  until  that  experiment  should  have  been 
carried  out  to  its  necessary  failure.  The  Browns,  with 
their  families,  were  ordered  to  return  to  England,  which 
they  did  within  the  j^ear,  losing  their  share  in  the  colo- 
nial venture. 

While  the  Salem  people  were  diligently  purging  their 
colony  of  the  Church  leaven,  a  Church  of  England 
The  Rev.  clergyman  was  quietly  living  and  prospering, 
William  far  away  from  neighbors,  where  Boston  now 

Blaxton.  ,  n-n        t^ 

stands,  llie  Rev.  William  Blaxton  was  a 
quiet,  peaceable  man,  who,  wearied  with  the  din  of 
religious  controversy  at  home,  had  come  to  America  to 
be  at  rest.  Pie  had  taken  up  a  farm,  built  a  comforta- 
ble house,  planted  orchards,  and  made  for  himself  and 
family  a  pleasant  home,  before  the  Salem  people  came, 


•iO  THE    EXGLLSll    CllUIJCn    I\    THE    COLONIES. 

It  was  not  to  exercise  his  ministry  lie  Lad  come,  but 
to  escape  the  strife  of  tongues.  One  day  in  1630, 
Wiiithrop,  with  a  little  band  of  land-hunters,  laid  down 
their  packs  and  built  their  fire  at  Charlestown.  Blax- 
ton's  servants  reported  their  presence,  and  the  kindly 
man  brought  the  cold  and  hungry  hunters  to  his  house. 
They  admired  his  jjlaee  "as  a  paradise/' being  chiefly 
delighted  with  his  apples,  whose  fragrance  reminded 
them  of  home.  From  his  house  they  went  morning 
by.  morning  to  their  clearings,  building  their  cabins  in 
Charlestown,  to  which  they  soon  removed.  New  set- 
tlers flocked  in,  and  the  town  of  Boston  grew  apace. 
Soon  Blaxton  was  surrounded.  His  peaceful  solitude 
was  gone.  A  town  was  built  and  a  community  organ- 
ized around  him.  He  was  graciously  permitted  to 
become  a  ''  fi'eeman ; "  but  his  Episcopal  neighbors 
Maverick  and  Walford  were  denied  the  same  privilege. 
No  attempt  was  made  by  Blaxton  to  hold  services  of 
the  Church.  But  gradually  and  surely  he  was  made  to 
feel  that  "  New  England  was  no  place  for  such  as  he.'" 
When  the  town  passed  an  order  that  only  those  of  the 
'^  Established  Order "  should  be  counted  as  freemen, 
thus  taking  away  his  citizenship,  he  sadly  accepted  its 
paltry  offer  of  one  hundred  and  "fifty  dollars  for  his 
property,  and  moved  away.  "  I  left  England,"  he  says, 
'"•  because  I  misliked  my  lords  the  bishops :  I  leave  here 
because  I  like  still  less  my  lords  the  brethren."  Provi- 
dence, in  Bliode  _  Island,  afl'oided  him  an  asylum,  as  it 
had  Roger  Williams.  The  effect  of  his  removal  was  to 
quickeu  his  own  zeal  in  his  oflice.  He  began  at  once 
in  his  uew  home  to  officiate  as  a  minister,  and  continued 
to  do  so  until  he  died,  an  old  man. 


THE   rURITAXS.  41 

Blaxton's   removal  closed  the  Prayer-Book  in  iNlassa- 

chusetts  for  fifty  years.     The  Churchmen  who  were  in 

the  colony  then,  as  Avell  as  the  considerable 

Churchmen  "  r  • 

inMassachu-   number  wlio   came   from  time  to  time,  con- 

setts.  formed  with  what  grace  they  could  to  the 

'^  Estaljlished  Order."  They  went  to  the  meeting- 
house, had  their  children  baptized  by  and  received  the 
Sacrament  at  the  hands  of  the  Puritan  ministers.  It 
was  the  easier  for  them  to  do  so  for  tlie  reason  that  the 
early  Puritan  ministers  had  been  in  point  of  fact  Epis- 
copally  ordained ;  and  also  because  the  idea  of  the 
exclusive  validity  of  Episcopal  Orders  was  not  gener- 
ally entertained  at  that  time  Ijy  the  great  majority  of 
Churchmen  even  in  England.  By  conforming  to  the 
Puritan  order  of  things  they  did  violence  only  to  their 
tastes  and  habits  and  not  their  consciences. 

But  by  this  time  the  zeal  of  the  Puritans  had  grown 
into  bigotry.  They  were  not  content  with  closing  the 
Prayer-Book  in  their  own  territory.  Massachusetts 
claimed  jurisdiction  over  the  Eastern  Colony  as  well. 
Nothing  less  than  the  suppression  of  the  Church  there 
would  content  them.  By  vexatious  legal  proceedings, 
and  by  still  harder  measures,  they,  to  all  practical  pur- 
poses, succeeded.  By  1680  there  was  only  one  Episco- 
pal clergyman  in  the  whole  of  New  England.  Old 
Father  Jordan  still  lived  in  Portsmouth,  but  broken  in 
fortune  and  in  spirit. 

New  England  had  purged  herself  of  all  disturbers  of 
tlie  peace.  The  Baptists  h.ad  been  banished  to  Rhode 
Island.  The  Quakers  had  been  whipped  and  driven 
into  the  wilderness.     Tlie  Churchmen  had  been  harried 


^2  THE    ENGLISH    CHURCH    IX   THE    COLONIES. 

either  into  conformity  or  exile.     But  their  success  was 

its  own  Nemesis. 

In   1684   their  charter   was    withdrawn.     They   had 

sided  with  Parliament  against  the  Crown.     When  the 

„.  ,  ,  ,  Crown  was  at  last  trium])hant  the  enmities 
Withdrawal  '■ 

of  the  char-     they   had    so    diligently   cultivated  returned 

ter  ^ 

to  plague  them.  They  might  no  longer  be 
trusted  with  the  powers  of  government.  The  American 
Theocracy,  after  a  gloomy  life  of  sixty  years,  fell  in  a 
day.  By  the  resumption  of  the  charter,  Massachusetts, 
including  all  the  territory  east  of  the  New  York  line, 
became  a  "royal"  colony.^  Its  special  privileges  were  • 
gone.  Its  territory  became  again  part  of  the  kingdom. 
The  Church  of  England  became  established  in  the  eyes 
of  English  law. 

A  wide  door  seemed  now  to  be  opened  to  the  Church. 
But,  unfortunately,  her  champions  proved  as  ready  to 
take  the  sword  as  their  enemies  had  been.  They  had 
now  the  secular  power  on  their  side.  But  it  was  Brit- 
ish power.  It  required  still  another  century  of  failure 
before  the  Church  could  learn  that  this  which  she  so 
fondly  believed  to  be  her  strength  \\as  her  hopeless 
weakness.     Meanwhile  she  exploited  it. 

On  a  ^lay  day  in  1686  the  man-of-war  Rose  sailed 
into  Boston  harbor,  bearing  the  first  governor  and  the 
Church  lean-  first  incumbent.  The  ill-starred  alliance 
ingupon         beoan    its    century  of   failure.     Boston   had 

British  Gov-  » 

emment.  five  tliousand  inhabitants,  and  three  meet- 
ing-houses. The  frigate  arrived  on  a  Thursday.  On 
Sunday  the  new  clergyman  read  service  and  preached 

•  Graham:  Colonial  History  of  U.S.,  vol.  i.  p.  254. 


THE   PURITANS.  43 

in  the  Town  House.  The  room  was  small  and  ill 
arranged.  But  it  was  packed,  and  a  great  crowd  of 
curious  hung  about  the  open  door  and  windows.  Mr. 
Ratcliffe  was  pronounced  on  all  hands  to  be  'an  ex- 
traordinary tine  preacher."  Next  day  a  wedding  was 
celebrated,  and  with  a  ring  I  During  the  week  Mr. 
Ratcliffe  formally  requested  from  the  Town  Council  the 
use  of  one  of  the  meeting-houses  to  liold  service  in. 
His  request  Avas  refusedj  and  he  was  reconnnended  to 
continue  using  the  Town  House.  The  governor,  fol- 
lowing his  instructions,  did  not  interfere.  The  people 
of  the  town,  of  Avhom  a  considerable  nuiuber  had  always 
.held  in  spirit  to  the  Church  of  their  birth,  continued  to 
attend  the  services  in  the  hall.  In  June  they  took  steps 
to  organize  a  parish.     A  vestiy  was  chosen. 

Parish  organ-  o  i  j  •> 

ized  in  Composed  of  Ed.  Randolph,  Captain  Lydgett, 

]\lessrs.  Luscombe,  White,  Macartie,  Clarke, 
Turferry,  Ravenscroft,  and  Bullivant.  The  rector's 
salary  was  fixed  at  ft!200  a  year.  They  asked  for  a 
share  of  the  fund  raised  by  taxation  in  tlie  town,  for 
the  support  of  public  worship,  and  were  refused.  Every 
slight  and  affront  which  might  safely  be  used  was  put 
upon  them.  Social  pressure  in  its  extremest  form  was 
brought  to  bear  against  any  aa'Iio  miglit  forsake  the 
meeting-house  for  the  Church.  But  the  congregation 
continued  to  grow  until  the  mean  Town  House  could 
in  no  wise  accommodate  it.  They  tried  to  borrow  one 
of  the  meeting-houses  at  such  times  as  it  was  not  in  use 
by  its  own  congregation.  They  were  answered  that 
"  we  cannot,  with  a  good  (conscience,  consent  that  our 
meeting-house  should  be  made  use  of  for  the  Common- 
Prayer  worship." 


44  THE   ENGLISH   CHUKCH    IN   THE   COLONIES. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  Andres  as  governor,  the  situation 
took  on  a  new  complexion.  He  was  too  domineering  in 
Governor  temper  and  too  pronounced  a  Churchman  to 
Andros.  carry  out   effectively  the    conciliatory  policy 

which  the  home  government  was  just  then  experiment- 
ing with.  For  six  months,  in  obedience  to  instruction, 
he  put  enough  constraint  upon  himself  to  keep  his 
official  hands  off.  He  went  with  the  other  Episcopa- 
lians to  the  little  Town  Hous.e  and  sat  upon  the  hard 
benches  with  what  dignity  and  comfort  he  could.  But 
after  six  months  his  ill-disguised  impatience  broke  out. 
The  personal  discomfort  might  have  been  endured. 
The  hinderance  to  tlie  growth  of  the  Cliurch,  as  such, 
did  not  disturb  him  much.  But  that  his  Excellency 
the  Governor,  the  representative  of  His  Royal  Majesty, 
should  be  stewed  week  after  week  in  a  mean  little 
barn,  while  the  rascally,  canting,  crop-eared  Puritans 
should  be  sittinof  at  their  ease  in  comfortable  sanotua- 
ries,  —  this  was  not  to  be  borne  I  By  the  governor's 
order  the  "  Old  South  Meeting-House  "  was  appropri- 
ated to  the  new  parish  for  morning  service,  leaving 
its  own  congregation  to  use  it  in  the  afternoon,  if 
they  liked.  There  was  no  appeal  from  tliis  order  to 
any  human  authority.  The  Puritans  therefore  changed 
the  venue  to  a  court  in  which  it  had  always  been  their 
peculiarity  to  believe  themselves  influential;  they  ap- 

i)ointcd  and  kept  a  dav  of  fasting  and  prayer. 
Joint  use  of  "  . 

meeting-         'i'hey  also  made  representations  to  the  gov- 

^°"^^'  ernor  wliich   led  him  to   partially  relax   the 

order.     The    meeting-house   was    to  be   used  on  alter- 
nate Sunday  mornings  by  the  two  congregations.     For 


THE   PL'RITANS.  45 

some  time  this  arrangement  continued.  But  it  worked 
badly.  The  Churchmen,  when  it  was  their  morning  in 
possession,  gi'cw  strongly  rubrical,  which  made  the  ser- 
vice so  long  that  the  afternoon  was  half  spent  before 
the  Puritans  could  have  their  turn.  When  the  Puri- 
tans were  in  possession  they  "  had  such  freedom  "  in 
prayer  and  the  expounding  of  the  Word,  that  no  time 
was  left  for  Evening  Prayer.  The  unseemly  spectacle 
became  common  Sunday  after  Sunday  of  one  congrega- 
tion, shivering  in  an  ill-humor  outside,  waiting  for  the 
one  piously  chuckling  inside  to  have  done  and  get 
away.  The  Church  had  been  placed,  as  usual,  by  the 
governor,  in  a  false  position.  They  had  no  right  to  the 
meeting-house  at  all,  either  at  law  or  in  equity.  In 
England  such  a  thing  as  its  forcible  use  would  liave 
been  impossible,  and  this  the  Boston  people  very  well 
knew.  There  was  nothing  for  the  Church  to  do  but  to 
abandon  its  claim  with  what  grace  it  might.  They 
determined  to  build  for  themselves.  A  subscription 
was  started  for  the  purpose,  which  produced  a  sufficient 
amount  almost  at  once.  Pity  they  had  not  done  it  six 
months  sooner.  For  by  now  the  Puritans  were  so  exa> 
perated  that  they  refused  to  sell  a  foot  of  ground  for  any 
such  purpose.  Sewall,  in  his  Diary,  writes :  "  Captain 
Davis  spoke  to  me  to-day  for  land  to  set  a  church  on. 
Told  him  I  could  not  and  would  not  put  Mr.  Cotton's 
land  to  sucii  a  use  :  first,  because  I  would  not  set  up  that 
which  the  people  of  New  England  came  over  to  avoid ; 
and  secondly,  the  land  was  entailed  !  "  After  repeated 
failure  to  make  private  purchase,  the  governor  came 
again  with  heavy  hand  to  the  rescue.     By  pressure  and 


46  THE   ENGLISH    CHURCH    IN    THE   COLONIES. 

thinly  disguised  threats,  he  persuaded  the  council  to 
cede  enough  of  common  land  for  the  purpose.  On 
King's  ^^  ^^^®  "King's  Chapel"  was  built,  at  a  cost 

Chapel  built,  of  §1,800.  With  a  church  of  its  own,  the 
parish  grew  more  rapidly  and  more  wholesomely. 

But  when  the  news  of  the  Revolution  of  1688  reached 
New  England,  and  it  was  learned  that  the  trusty  Prot- 
estant, and,  as  they  believed,  Presbyterian,  William  of 
Orange,  was  on  the  throne,  the  Puritans  thought  their 
innings  had  come.  Without  waiting  for  accurate  infor- 
mation, they  clapped  Governor  Andros  into  jail,  shipped 
the  Episcopal  rector  off  to  England,  smashed  the  win- 
dows of  the  church,  pelted  its  walls  with  mud  and  filth, 
mobbed  and  harried  the  Churchmen  within  an  inch  of 
their  lives.  For  months  the  poor,  dilapidated  church 
stood  silent  and  desolate,  bearing  scurrilous  extempores 
scribbled  on  its  walls  alluding  to  Jezebel  and  the  Scarlet 
Wliore. 

But  the  Puritans  presently  discovered  that  they  had 
been  premature.  They  learned  that  William  was  not 
the  man  they  had  taken  liiin  to  be.  With  no  enthusi- 
astic love  to  the  Church,  —  or  to  anything  else,  for  that 
matter,  —  it  was  now  his  Church,  officially,  and  must 
be  decently  treated.  He  was  as  ready  to  lay  his  hand 
upon  an  ultra-Puritan  as  an  ultra-Papist ;  and  his  hand 
was  not  a  pleasant  one  to  be  touched  with  angrily.  The 
gloomy  Bostonians  had  the  mortification  to  see  the  rec- 
tor come  back  again,  with,  as  they  phrased  it,  "seven 
other  devils  worse  than  himself."  The  church  was 
rehabilitated,  services  recommenced,  new  books,  plate, 
and  para})hernalia  of  worship  brought  in,  the  scattered 


THE   PURITAXS.  4 J 

congregation  regathered  and  increased,  and  tlie  w()i-.slii[) 
of  God  l)j  the  Common  Prayer  set  up,  to  grow  steadily 
tlwougli  two  centuries,  till  now  tlie  Church  in  New  Eng- 
land includes  in  her  roll  of  members  the  name  borne  by 
almost  every  prominent  Puritan  in  the  early  annals  of 
the  colony.  Wlnle  the  Church  stood  with  the  Crown 
against  the  popular  will,  they  hated  her  with  that  sus- 
tained and  smouldering  hatred  of  which  only  Puritans 
were  capable.  When  that  unholy  alliance  was  shaken 
loose,  and  the  Church  had  the  chance  to  show  what  she 
is  in  herself,  the  grandsons  of  her  enemies  became  her 
loving  children. 

Thirty  years  ago  a  tablet  of  brass  was  set  in  the 
rebuilt  wall  of  the  "  Founders'  Chapel  "  of  St.  Botolph's 
The  quarrel  ^'li^^'^'h  in  old  Bostoii,  Lincolnshire.  It  bears 
ended.  an  inscription  to  the  memory  of  Jolin  Cotton, 

the  Puritan  pi-eacher  of  new  Boston,  Massachusetts. 
When  the  chapel  was  re-opened  the  flags  of  England 
and  America  floated  together  from  the  tower,  in  sign 
that  the  old  quarrel  was  over  and  past.  Tho  Bishop  of 
London,  Laud's  successor,  Avas  present,  and  the  Bishop 
of  Lincoln  preached  fittingly  fiom  the  text,  "  Let  us 
build  ^^■ith  you,  for  we  seek  God  as  ye  do."  ^ 

1  Thornton:  The  Pulpit  of  tlie  Revolution,  p.  xxii. 


48  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    ROMAN    CATHOLICS. 

In  the  early  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign  the  ambassador 
of  his  Most  Catholic  Majesty  of  Spain  wrote  to  his  master 
that  the  royal  virgin  was,  in  his  judgment,  "  possessed 
of  a  hundred  thousand  devils."  If  this  were  true,  it  is 
likely  that  the  task  assigned  to  five  legions  of  them  was 
to  harry  the  English  Parliament ;  the  other  five  were 
occupied  with  the  Puritans.  When  James  I  succeeded, 
the  Romanists  came  to  believe  that  a  wholesale  exor- 
cism had  been  wrought  in  the  kingdom.  It  was  true 
that  James  was  more  of  a  Protestant  than  Elizabeth,  so 
far  as  theological  definitions  are  concerned.  Nothing 
would  have  pleased  the  royal  theologaster  better  than  a 
set  discussion  with  the  Pope  himself ;  but  he  differed 
radically  from  the  leonine  queen  in  temper.  He  would 
argue  with  the  Romanists  by  the  week,  but  he  would 
not  cut  their  heads  off.  By  Elizabeth's  method  argu- 
ment is  quickly  ended,  by  James's  it  may  be  continued. 

This  being  the  king's  disposition,  when  George  Cal- 
vert, one  of  his  state  officers,  became  a  pervert  to 
Lord  Baiti-  Romanism  in  1624,  he  did  not  thereby  forfeit 
™°^^-  the  royal  favor.     He  was  made   Lord  Balti- 

more in  lieu  of  the  honorable  offices  this  step  compelled 
him  to  relinquish.  But  he  thereby  cast  his  lot  with  a 
people  who  had  been,  upon  the  whole,  fairly  judged,  and 


THE   ROMAN   CATHOLICS.  49 

lay  under  the  popular  verdict  of  bad  Christians  and 
untrustworthy  Englishmen.  For  this  cause  the  rights 
of  citizenship  had  been  taken  away  from  them.  They 
held  their  fortunes  and  lives  by  sufferance,  and  both 
were  often  in  jeopardy.  Calvert  made  himself  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  their  situation.  His  connection 
by  marriage  with  Sir  Thomas  Arundel,  their  chief  ad- 
viser, gave  him  opportunity  to  know  their  needs  and 
wishes.  He  was  already  one  of  the  original  members  of 
the  Virginia  Council.  This  fact  probably  suggested  his 
scheme  to  him.  The  Puritans  had  their  colony,  why 
should  not  the  Romanists  have  theirs?  They  could 
there  escape  the  social  and  political  disabilities  which 
their  fathers  had  brought  upon  them,  and  maybe  add  a 
new  jewel  to  the  much-battered  tiara.  In  any  case,  in 
the  New  World  the  priest  would  not  be  compelled  to 
disguise  himself  in  Hodge's  smock-frock  or  the  livery  of 
a  footman,  and  the  people  to  hear  mass  with  guarded 
doors,  and  in  deadly  fear  of  the  hangman's  knife. 

Thus  Maryland,  like  the  other  earliest  colonies. 
The  Maryland  st'^i'ted  with  a  distinctly  religious  motive.  It 
colony.  ^yas  to  be  a  refuge  and  a  seed-plot  for  Eng- 

lish Roman  Catholics. 

For  this  purpose,  openly  avowed,  Lord  Baltimore 
received  from  Charles  I  a  patent  for  the  territory  lying 
between  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac  and  the  fortieth 
degree  of  north  latitude,  and  running  westward  indefi- 
nitely.^  Before  the  charter  received  the  imprint  of  the 
Great  Seal,  Baltimore  died.  Leonard  Calvert,  his  son, 
took  up  his  father's  task.    Romish  noblemen  and  gentle- 

1  Shea:  Catholic  Church  in  Colonial  Days,  p.  M, 


50         THE   ENGLISH    CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

men  furnished  the  outfit,  and  their  humbler  followers 
became  the  colonists.  Two  ships,  the  Ark  and  the  Dove, 
bore  the  company  of  a  hundred  people.  Tliey  were  the 
best  equipped  and  furnished  of  all  the  early  companies. 
They  sailed  from  Cowes,  November  22,  1633.  After 
a  long  and  stormy  voyage,  in  which  they  were  driven 
by  stress  of  weather  to  the  Barbadoes  and  Montserrat, 
they  entered  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac,  which  they 
consecrated  to  St.  Gregory,  and  rechristened  the  two 
capes  which  clip  its  mouth  Cape  St.  Gregory  and  Cape 
St.  Michael.  The  islands  they  sailed  by,  they  called  St. 
Clement,  St.  Catherine,  and  St.  Cecilia.  On  this  last 
they  landed,  and  the  two  Jesuits  sent  by  their  provin- 
cial with  the  expedition,  Father  Andrew  White  and 
Father  John  Altham,  said  mass  for  the  company  on 
Annunciation  Day,  1634.  Thence  they  moved  to  the 
^NLuyland  shore,  and  unloaded  their  goods  at  St.  Mary's. 
"•  There,"  says  Bancroft,  "  religious  liberty  obtained  a 
home,  its  only  home  in  the  wide  world." 

This  last  declaration  has  l)een  so  often  made,  that  in 

the  interest  of  common  justice  it  should  be  qualified  and 

supplemented.     Tilings   which   differ   ought 

Romanists  i         nn  t-.  /-it 

andreii-  to  be  distinguished.  ihat  Roman  Catho- 
g:ous  1  erty.  y^^^  sliould  be  claimed  as  the  cliampions  of 
leligious  liberty  in  the  seventeenth  century,  seems  suffi- 
ciently grotesque  to  the  student  of  history.^  The 
simple  truth  in  tlie  premises  is  this  :  the  Calverts  did 
believe  and  ])ractise  so;  the  Roman  Church  did  neither 
the  one  nor  the  otlier.      The  settlers  of  Maryland  were 

'  Tliis  claim  was  tlie  burtlen  of  tlie  addresses  at  tlie  Koiiiuu  Catholic 
Couference  at  Baltimore  in  October,  1889. 


THE    ROM.VN   CATHOLICS.  51 

too  glad  to  find  safety  to  lliink  of  persecutiun.     Not 
that  they  would  have   done  so  if  they  could.     They 
should  have,   ungrudged,   their   meed   of    praise ;    but 
they  must  not  have  all  the  praise.     It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  tlieir  new  liome  was  given  them  by  a  Prot- 
estant king,  with  the  hearty  advice  and  approval  of  a 
Protestant  council,  who  in  so  doing  waived  their  own 
claims  in  the  interest  of  their  misguided  but  still  loved 
countrymen.     They  made  the  gift  with  their  eyes  open. 
English  Romanists  Avere  utterly  discredited  as  citizens. 
It  was  not  alone  or  chiefly  that  their  religion  was  ablior- 
rent.     By  their  own  declaration  they  took  their  political 
orders  fioni  an  enemy  whom  England  could  not  then 
afford  to  despise.     Romanists  in  England  meant  serv- 
ants of  tlie   Papacy  and  agents  of  tlie  king  of  Spain. 
Despite  of  this,  Protestant  Englishmen  gave  them  that 
peaceful  home  in  Maryland,  which   had  already  been 
brutally  refused  them  by  their  Erench  co-religionists  in 
Newfoundland.!     The    founders  were  of   those  few  in 
their  day  ^^•ho  were  Catholics  rather   than  Romanists, 
and   Englishmen    before    either.     Such  were    the    Cal- 
verts,  a  noble  race  with  few  contemporaries  and  fewer 
descendants.     They  had  neither  the  will  nor  the  power 
of  intolerance.     But  they  laid  no  claim  to  toleration  as 

Persecution     ^  ''"'^''^-     ^^^'^y  ^^^^P^^  recognized   existing 
by  them  im-     facts.     The  first  offer  of  persecution  })v  the 

possible.  TIT        1        1        1 

Maryland  colony  would  have  brought  such  a 

storm  about  them  as  would  have  swei)t  them  into  the 

ocean.     ( 'liurchmen  and  Quakers,  Baptists  and  Puritans, 

would    have    combined    to    exterminate    the    ingrates. 

1  Shea:  Catholic  Cliuicli  in  Colonial  Days,  p.  32. 


52         THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

They  were  glad  to  leave  England,  and  there  is  serious 
reason  to  believe  that  they  were  not  altogether  sorry 
to  be  three  thousand  miles  farther  away  from  Rome. 
Their  chosen  priests  were  Jesuits,  and  the  Society  of 
Jesus  was  not  then  in  favor  at  Rome.  It  had  already 
launched  upon  that  policy  of  adaptability  to  every 
circumstance,  which  made  it  distrusted  and  finally 
led  to  its  suppression  by  the  Pojje  himself.  Domini- 
cans, Capuchins,  and  Franciscans  were  those  whom 
Rome  then  looked  upon  with  favor.  The  judgment 
of  the  Roman  Church  was  at  one  with  that  of  the 
Puiitan  upon  this  question.  Cotton  Mather  spoke  for 
both  when  he  pronounced  "  toleration  —  a  doctrine  of 
devils."  The  Calverts  and  their  friends  were  as  far 
removed  from  the  spirit  of  their  Church  as  from  that 
of  their  times.  They  were  never  looked  upon  kindly 
by  their  spiritual  superiors,  and  when  the  last  of  them 
returned  to  England  the  Romish  King,  James  II, 
refused  to  receive  him.^ 

This  colony,  with  its  exceptional  advantages  of  equip- 
ment, soil,  and  climate,  filled  up  more  slowly  than  any  of 
Slow  growth  ^^^  compeers.  At  first  the  immigrants  were 
of  the  colony,  pf  ^]^q  same  faith  as  the  founders.  But  this 
supply  of  men  was  quickly  exhausted.  The  truth  was, 
there  were  few  of  that  sort  among  the  English-speak- 
ing people  to  draw  from.  The  stream  of  immigration 
soon  became  Protestant.  Before  a  generation  had 
passed,  these  last  were  in  the  majority ;  before  the  end 
of   the    century  they  were   ten  to  one.^     While  there 

1  Hawks:  Ecclesiastiral  Contributions,  vol.  ii.  p.  56. 

2  lb.  p.  73;  Shea,  p.  26. 


THE   ROMAN   CATHOLICS.  53 

was  no  religious  establishment,  the  offices  of  the  prov- 
ince were  all  rigidly  kept  in  the  hands  of  Roman  Cath- 
olics, and  this  even  after  they  had  become  less  than 
one-tenth  of  the  population.  No  open  obstacle  was 
placed  in  the  way  of  Protestant  worship,  but  any  offi- 
cial advantage  available  was  lent  to  that  of  Rome. 
Occasional  services  of  the  Church  of  England  were  held 
almost  from  the  first,  by  clergy  from  Virginia,  from 
New  England,  and  by  occasional  visitors  from  England. 
In  a  few  places  services  were  kept  up  Avith  regularity 
for  considerable  periods,  but  the  record  of  them  in 
detail  is  not  now  extant. 

In  Cromwell's  time  the  Commonwealth  sent  over  a 
commission  to  set  up  the  "  New  Model,"  and  Roman- 
ists and  Churchmen  were  both  suppressed. 

At  the  Restoration  things  returned  to  the  same  state 
as  before. 

Ten  years  later  the  Roman  Catholic  population  had 
been  engulfed.^  The  Italian  plant  in  America  had 
withered,  and  did  not  revive  again,  till  the  stream  of 
Irish  immigration  poured  over  it  in  the  middle  of  this 
present  century. 

When  this  condition  had  been  reached,  the  people  of 
Maryland  effected,  rightly,  the  "Protestant  Revolution." 
A  petition  to  the  Crown  was  offered  praying  that  the 
offices  of  the  province  might  be  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Protestants,  who  constituted  its  people.  It  was  right 
and  just,  on  the  Calverts'  own  principles,  that  this  should 
be  done.  Nor  did  their  descendants  and  successors 
strongly  oppose  it. 

J  Shea,  p.  75. 


54  THE   ENGLISH    CHUKCH    IN   THE   fULONHiS. 

The  first  clear  view  of  the  Church's  career  there 
begins  in  1675.  A  Mr.  Yeo,  of  Patuxent,  writes  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, — 

''  The  Province  of  Maryland  is  in  a  deplorable  state 
for  want  of  an  established  ministry.  Here  are  ten  or 
twelve  counties,  and  in  them  at  least  twenty  thousand 
souls,  and  but  three  Protestant  ministers  of  the  Church 
of  England.  The  Lord's  Day  is  profaned,  religion  is 
despised,  and  all  the  notorious  vices  are  committed,  so 
that  it  is  become  a  Sodom  of  uncleanness  and  a  pest  of 
iniquity." 

The  picture  drawn  by  Mr.  Yeo  is  probably  too  deeply 
colored,  but  there  is  abundant  testimony  that  that  pesti- 
"BadCath-  ^^^^^  class  had  multiplied  rapidly  which  has 
ohcs."  since  become  the  bane  of  the  United  States. 

"Bad  Catholics"  have  always  been  the  worst  of  the 
population,  —  while  good  ones  have  been  as  good  as  any. 
The  only  authority  which  they  have  been  reared  to 
recognize  as  really  binding  is  the  Church.  When  they 
or  their  children  break  away  or  lapse  from  under  it, 
there  is  nothing  to  take  its  place.  The  intrinsically 
divine  quality  of  civil  government,  which  has  always 
been  one  of  the  underlying  beliefs  of  Protestantism,  is 
unknown  by  them.  In  their  eagerness  to  accent  the 
divine  nature  of  the  Church,  they  have  emptied  every- 
thing else  of  its  divinity.  When  they  break  with  it 
they  are  left  wandering  stars.  In  the  present  day  they 
form  a  great  proportion  of  the  inmates  of  jails  and  peni- 
tentiaries. In  the  last  years  of  the  seventeenth  century 
they  were  at  large  in  Maryland.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church  had  almost  completely  lost  its  hold  on  its  own 


THE   ROMAN   CATHOLICS.  55 

children.  It  was  not  for  a  hundred  j-ears  later  that 
they  were  able  to  support  their  first  bishop.  When 
Madison  went  to  P^ngland  for  consecration,  John  Car- 
roll, the  Roman  Catholic,  was  his  shipmate  on  his  way 
to  accomplish  a  similar  errand. 

The  lapsed  Romanists  were  mingled  with  lapsed 
Churchmen,  Quakers  destitute  of  the  "  inner  light," 
Baptists,  and  a  few  Scotch  Presbyterians.  They  were 
practically  all  planters.  The  evil  effect  of  African 
slavery  upon  the  masters  was  beginning  to  show  itself. 
They  were  overbearing,  indolent,  and  licentious, — the 
three  besetting  sins  of  slave-keeping  people.  Dancing, 
drinking,  horse-racing,  cock-fighting,  were  their  serious 
occupations.^  Their  charter  was  revoked  in  1690,  like 
those  of  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  in  pursuance 
Charter  "re-  ^^  ^^^^  home  policy  whicli  had  determined  to 
voked.  bring  the  colonial  territory  out,  of  its  anoma- 

lous political  status,  and  restore  it  to  its  place  as  a  part 
of  the  common  possessions  of  the  kingdom.  By  this  act 
of  the  Crown,  —  not  the  colonists  themselves,  —  the  ec- 
clesiastical balance  was  overturned.  The  people  came 
back  under  English  law.  By  that  law  the  Romanist  as 
such  was  proscribed.  His  very  existence  became  trea- 
son. By  the  same  law  the  English  Cliurch  was  part  of 
the  machinery  of  the  realm.  It  needed  no  new  statute 
for  either.  The  existing  laws  sufficed.  The  Church  of 
England  was  now  the  established  Church  of  Maiyland. 
Clergy  began  to  come  apace,  but  of  a  character  and  qual- 
ity so  indifferent  that  their  presence  wrought,  if  possible, 

1  Lotlge:  English  Colonies  in  America,  p.  127  et  seq. 

1  McMastcr:  History  of  People  of  United  States,  vol.  i.  pp  424,  425. 


56  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE  COLONIES. 

more  harm  than  their  previous  absence  had  done.  It  is 
evil  for  a  people  to  have  no  priests ;  it  is  still  worse  to 
have  bad  ones.  The  first  Maryland  priest  we  catch  sight 
Unworthy  "^^  ^^  ^^  ^^^^^  ^^rt.  John  Coode,  a  politician, 
ministers.  ,^  mountebank,  a  land-surveyor,  a  Jack-of-all- 
trades,  had  been  mixed  up  with  all  the  broils  of  the 
colony,  was  always  to  be  found  at  his  post  after  the 
fight,  when  the  spoil  was  being  gathered.  He  had  been 
most  forward  in  the  petition  to  have  the  colonial  offices 
turned  over  to  Protestants,  and  had  secured  two  or 
three  of  them  for  his  share.  The  duties  of  one  of  them 
called  liim  to  England.  While  there  he  managed  to 
have  himself  ordained  to  the  ministry.  Upon  his 
return  he  began  at  once  to  officiate.  It  can  readily  be 
imagined  how  much  good  he  did.  His  character  grew 
from  bad  to  worse.  Without  giving  up  either  his  sacred 
or  secular  office  he  added  to  them  both  that  of  customs 
officer.  At  odd  times  he  surveyed  a  plantation  and 
bowsed  all  the  evening  with  the  owner.  He  was  so 
drunk  once  during  service  on  Sunday  that  Governor 
Nicholson,  who  was  in  the  congregation,  led  him  out 
and  caned  him  handsomely,  —  and  was  challenged  by 
him  for  the  indignity.  He  went  up  and  down  the 
colony  preaching  on  Sunday,  and  lecturing  during  the 
week,  on  "The  Absurdities  of  Christianity," — a  sort 
of  seventeenth-century  Ingersoll  in  spurs  and  cassock. 
Finally  his  conduct  became  so  intolerable  that  he  was 
arrested,  tried  for  general  misbehavior,  and  banished 
from  the  colony. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  all  the  priesthood  were 
such  as  this,  the  first  we  meet.    The  earliest  missionaries 


THE   ROMAN   CATHOLICS.  57 

had  been  devout  and  godly  men,  and  some  such  still 
remained.  But  for  the  most  part  they  had  passed  away. 
Now  that  plantation  life  had  grown  easy,  and  a  ready 
fortune  was  to  be  gathered,  and  the  people  themselves 
had  declined  in  manners,  so  many  of  Coode's  sort  came 
that  we  shall  find  ministerial  un  worthiness  to  be  a  pain- 
ful feature  of  the  Church  for  more  than  a  generation, 

indeed,  in  the  Southern  colonies,  quite  up  to  the  Revo- 
lution. 

When  the  year  1700  had  been  reached,  the  position  of 
the  Church  in  the  province  of  the  Calverts  was,  roughly. 
Situation  ^^^^^-  There  were  about  twenty-two  thousand 
in  1700.  inhabitants,   nine-tenths    of   them   nominally 

Protestants,  a  turbulent  and  ill-regulated  populace. 
The  Church  of  England  was  established  by  law.  A 
poll-tax  of  forty  pounds  of  tobacco  was  assessed  for 
its  support  upon  every  rate-payer.  There  were  about 
half  a  dozen  clergy.  Tiie  people  were  in  many  places 
anxious  both  for  more  and  better  ones.  They  forwarded 
petitions  to  the  Bishop  of  London  and  Canterbury  fre- 
quently to  this  end.  A  curious  fact  is  that  the  signers 
of  these  petitions  constantly  called  themselves  "  Protest- 
ant-Catholics." Did  they  anticipate  by  two  centuries 
a  true  conception  of  the  Church  ?  Were  the  two  classes 
so  fused  together  in  the  common  population  that  they 
simply  described  themselves  ? 

The  Establishment  was  most  unpopular,  even  in 
the  eyes  of  the  stanchest  Churchmen.  The  tax  of 
tobacco  was  evaded,  or  else  paid  in  an  herb  of  so  poor 
a  quality  that  even  Parson  Samson  raised  his  gorge 
At  it. 


58  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

The  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  colony  has  been  well 
summed  up  in  the  words  of  a  modern  writer : 

"  There  were  three  eras  of  toleration  in  Maryland. 
That  of  the  proprietaries,  which  lasted  fifty  years. 
Under  it  all  believers  in  Christ  were  (theoretically) 
equal  before  the  law,  and  all  support  to  churches  and 
ministers  was  voluntary. 

"That  of  the  Puritans,  which  lasted  six  years,  and  in- 
cluded all  but  Romanists,  Episcopalians,  and  heretics. 

"  The  Anglican  toleration,  which  lasted  eighty  years, 
had  glebes  and  churches  for  the  Establishment,  conniv- 
ance for  Dissenters,  penal  laws  for  Catholics,  and  from 
all  theforti/  pounds  per  poll.''  ^ 

1  American  Commonwealth  Series,  Maryland,  p.  186. 


THE   DUTCH.  59 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    DUTCH. 

The  early  settlements  were  established,  one  after  the 
other,  on  the  banks  of  Albemarle  Sound,  Chesapeake, 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  Delaware  Bays.  To  the 
three  first  and  the  last  the  colonists  came  impelled  either 
entirely  or  dominantly  by  religious  motives,  and  all  came 
from  England.  The  New  York  settlement  sprang  from 
religious  motives  only  indirectly.  Remotely,  the  Refor- 
mation was  its  occasion.  That  had  divided  Europe  into 
two  hostile  camps.  For  half  a  century  they  strove  to 
settle  on  the  field  that  quarrel  between  the  Pope  and 
the  Augustinian  monk,  Mliicli  had  failed  of  adjustment 
by  argument.  Slowlj-  the  war  concentrated  itself  into 
the  Netherlands,  the  historic  battle-ground  of  Europe. 
In  that  arena  Rome  broke  herself  against  the  indomi- 
table Dutch.  But  these  could  strike,  as  well  as  endure. 
While  they  stubbornly  defended  themselves  at  home, 
they  aimed  a  blow  at  their  Spanish  enemy's  remotest 
border.  The  English  skipper,  Henry  Hudson,  with  a 
Seeking  the  sturdy  Dutch  crew  in  the  ship  Half  Moon, 
East  Indies,  ^yr^^  ggj^^  ^^^  ravage  the  Spanish  possessions 
in  the  Farther  Indies.  In  September,  1609,  they  passed 
inside  Sand>'  Hook,  and  fancied  they  might  before  even- 
ing drop  their  anchor  in  front  of  Singap)ore.^     The  great 

1  Parknian:  Discovciy  of  the  Cheat  West,  p.  xxi. 


60  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

river  they  were  in,  and  the  Straits  of  Malacca,  to  their 
minds,  covered  the  same  space  upon  the  map.  An  un- 
suspected continent  and  an  unknown  ocean  lay  between 
them  and  their  purpose.  Their  voyage  of  war  became 
changed  perforce  to  one  of  discovery  and  adventure  ;  for 
trading  with  Indians  would  be  quite  as  profitable  as 
fighting  with  Lascars.  Bears  and  wolverines  were  plenty 
on  either  side  of  Hudson's  River,  mink  and  otter  abun- 
dant along  the  Sound,  and  muskrats  swarmed  about  the 
Haarlem  flats.  Barter  with  the  natives  was  easy,  and 
Hudson's  crew  went  home  both  earlier  and  richer  than 
they  had  expected.  Their  report  soon  led  to  other  ex- 
peditions for  the  same  purpose.  A  fort  and  a  cluster  of 
cabins  sprang  up  on  Manhattan  Island.  In  1619  the 
United  Provinces  gained  their  hard-won  independence. 
Immediately  there  sprang  up  among  them  the  same 
movement  of  adventure  and  colonization  which  had 
shown  itself  among  the  English  upon  their  peace 
with  Spain.  The  "  Dutch  West  India  Company " 
Avas  organized.  The  United  Provinces  gave  it  leave 
to  found  a  state  in  America.  Leave  was  all  they 
gave  it.  They  warned  the  colonists  that  they  went 
on  their  own  responsibility,  and  took  their  own  risk. 
They  must  ''look  to  the  Provinces  for  nothing  but 
friendly  patronage."  In  1625  the  advance  guard  of 
thirty  families  came.  For  twenty-four  dollars  they 
bought  Manhattan  Island  for  their  own,  and  began 
at  once  to  build  their  town  about  the  block-house  of 
the  fur-traders. 

It  is  their  ecclesiastical  future  with  which  we  have 
to  do.     After  two  centuries  and  a  half  shall  have  passed 


THE  DUTCH.  61 

over,  we  will  find  the  names  borne  by  these  Dutch 
Ecclesiastical  ""migrants  in  the  Church,— Stuyvesants,De 
position  of      Peysters,  Livingstons,  Schuylers,  Bleeckers, 

the  Dutch.  i   t» 

and  Kemsens.     By  what  steps,  and  through 
what  influences,  have  they  come  ? 

They  came  here  Presbyterians,  but  Presbyterians  of 
a  very  different  type,  and  with  other  traditions,  than 
those  we  shall  find  across  the   Church's  path  later  on. 
In  their  long  war   with  the  Papacy  their  bishops  had 
taken  sides  against  them.     When  the  Episcopate  runs 
away,  only  the  Presbyterate  is  left.     The   Dutchmen's 
theory  of  the  Presbytery  came  after  the  fact.     In  such 
a  case  the  theory  is  not  held  aggressively.     Their  the- 
ology was  not  of  the  fierce  Calvinistic    sort.      It  was 
broader,  more  kindly,  and  more  human.     The  "Church 
idea  "  has  never  been  wanting  in  them  or  their  descend- 
ants.    They  had  become  Presbyterian   from  necessity, 
and  continued  to  be  so  from  wont  and  use  rather  than 
from  conscience.     Five  years  after  their  town  of  New 
Amsterdam  was  started,  their  first  minister  came  out. 
The  Dutch       I*'i%  communicants  and  more  greeted  him. 
as  settlers.      j]^q  colony  grew  rapidly.     Soon   the  island 
was  too  strait  for  them,  and  they  pushed  out  to  search 
new  places.     They  ascended  the  Hudson,  and  followed 
the  Mohawk  till  its  branches  interlaced  with   the  Sus- 
quehanna.    Adrian   Block  passed  through  the  Sound, 
and  left  his  name  on  Block  Island.     Captain  May  fol- 
lowed the  Jersey  coast  till  he  reached  the  cape  which 
bears  his  name.     They  plodded  eastward  until  they  con- 
fronted the  Puritans  on  the  Housatonic.     This  was  a 
significant  meeting.     It  was  the  old  problem  in  physics 


62         TlIK   ENGLISH   CIIUKCH   IN    THE   COLONIES. 

of  an  irresistil)le  body  meeting  an  immovable  one.  It 
was  followed  by  a  whole  generation  of  contest,  some- 
times by  words,  then  by  threats,  and  even  by  blows, 
Roger  Williams  came  all  the  way  from  Providence  to 
arbitrate  between  them,  and  gained  the  ill-will  of 
both. 

The  Dutch  had  learned  religious  toleration  in  a  liard 
school,  and  had  learned  their  lesson  well.  In  New  York 
alone,  of  all  the  colonies,  absolute  religious 
liberty  subsisted  from  the  start.  Even  in 
Penn's  colony  no  "Jew,  Turk,  Infidel,  or  heretic  "'  might 
live.  New  York  gave  a  home  to  everything  that  is 
human.  There  the  Jew  first  set  foot  in  America. 
Lutherans,  Puritans,  Presbyterians,  Huguenots,  and 
Quakers  dwelt  undisturbed.  Even  when  choleric  old 
Peter  Stuyvesant  harried  the  Quakers  and  Lutherans, 
it  was  to  satisfy  a  personal  grudge,  and  his  conduct 
was  not  sustained  by  the  people.  Dutch,  French,  and 
English  were  spoken,  each  by  so  many  that  public 
documents  required  to  be  in  all  three  tongues. 

But  this  prosperous  Dutch  colony  was  occupying 
British  soil,  and  now  their  place  was  wanted.  They 
had  come  without  leave  asked,  and  had  been  warned  by 
their  own  government,  in  advance,  not  to  look  to  it 
for  help.  The  mouth  of  the  Hudson  was  within  the 
Virginia  Company's  grant.  That  company  had  resigned 
to  the  Crown  what  was  needed  for  jMassachusetts  and 
Maryland",  but  not  for  New  Netherlands.  It  was  now 
wanted  for  the  King's  brother,  the  Duke  of  York.  The 
Dutch  were  warned  to  vacate,  but  placidly  sat  still. 
On  the  8th  of  September,  10(34,  the  Duke's  fleet,  with 


THE   DUTCH.  63 

Colonel  Nichols,  dropped  anchor  off  the  island.  Stout 
Peter  Stuyvesant,  then  governor,  stormed  in  vain.  Tlie 
Dutch  would  not  light,  neither  would  they  run  away. 
They  went  about  their  work  serenely.  Their  governor 
ungraciously  capitulated  for  them,  stipulating  that  ''  the 
Dutch  shall  enjoy  liberty  of  conscience  here  in  divine 
worship  and  church  discipline."  ^ 

Colonel  Nichols  landed  with  his  staff  and  his  chap- 
lain, bringing  the  English  flag  and  the  English  Church. 

Their  comino-  did  not  strikingly  change  the 
Coming  of  ...  .  -  ^. 

the  English  ecclcsiastical  situation.  Colonel  Nichols  Avas 
himself  a  Churchman,  but  of  a  mild  type. 
He  made  no  attempt  at  propagandism.  His  own  chap- 
lain read  prayers  and  preached  in  the  little  log  chapel  of 
Fort  James  alternately  with  tlie  Dutch  dominie,  and, 
later  on,  the  Roman  Catholic  priest.  For  thirty  years 
this  indifference  continued.  The  Dutch  had  their  meet- 
ing-houses; the  Huguenots  liad  their  chapel;  the  Bap- 
tists had  theirs  ;  and  the  Quakers  met  from  house  to 
house  ;  but  the  Church's  voice  was  not  heard  beyond  the 
garrison's  drum-beat.  When  Governor  Andros  came 
the  situation  changed.  His  truculent  Churchmanship 
asserted  itself  here  as  it  liad  done  in  Boston.  He  found, 
however,  that  the  Dutch  were  more  difficult  to  deal 
with  than  even  the  Puritans.  They  would  not  actively 
oppose  his  projects,  much  less  fly  into  a  religious  fury, 
but  their  stolid  inertia  baffled  even  the  domineering 
governor.  He  passed  away  soon  to  another  province, 
leaving  the  Churcli  circumscribed  as  narrowly  as  it  had 
been  before  he  came,  but  bearing  now  the  burden  of 
popular  dislike  which  he  had  created. 

1  CaDitulation  :  Article  viii. 


64         THE   ENGLISH  CHURCH   IX   THE   COLONIES. 

It  was  not  till  1690,  after  the  Dutch  Stadtholder 
had  become  the  English  King,  that  the  Church  began 
to  grow.  The  change  of  dynasty  had  its  effect.  The 
Dutch  in  New  York  no  longer  deemed  themselves  for- 
eigners. The  King  spoke  their  tongue  far  better  than 
he  did  English.  He  was  a  member  of  their  Church  as 
well  as  an  Episcopalian.  If  their  beloved  Prince  of 
Orange  found  it  easy  to  be  a  Churchman,  why  should 
not  they  do  likewise  ?  Even  if  they  did  not  become 
so  formally,  their  feeling  toward  the  Church  became 
greatly  modified.  The  only  thing  they  boggled  at  was 
giving  up  their  beloved  Dutch  tongue.  They  stood  out 
against  this,  but  in  vain.  The  young  peoj^le  under- 
stood English,  and  grew  to  dislike  their  fathers'  speech. 
They  clamored  for  English  in  their  services.  When 
the  elder  people  refused  to  allow  it,  the  younger  turned 
to  the  Church. 

In  1692  Governor  Fletcher  persuaded  the  Assembly 
to  pass  an  "  Act  to  make  provision  for  the  ministry  in 
Churches-  every  county."  It  districted  the  province 
tabiishment.  ^^^q  parishes,  provided  for  an  assessment  to 
sustain  public  worship,  and  put  it  within  the  governor's 
right  to  nominate  "a  worthy  Protestant  minister"  in 
each.  It  is  clear  that  the  Assembly  used  the  term 
"  Protestant  minister  "  in  its  widest  sense.  They  were 
themselves  almost  all  Dutch  Presbyterians.  But  the 
governor  declared  that  he  was  constrained  to  interpret 
the  Act  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  the  realm. 
Wherever  that  law  mrt  the  phrase  "  Protestant  minis- 
ter," it  understood  by  it  a  minister  of  the  Established 
Church.     If  the  Assembly  meant  something  else,  they 


THE   DUTCH.  65 

should  have  said  wliat  they  meant.  They  had  used  the 
legal  phraseology,  and  by  it  they  had  unintentionally 
established  the  Church  of  England  in  New  York  !  He 
would  nominate  none  but  Churchmen  to  the  parishes, 
and  the  tax  must  be  expended  for  them.  It  seems  at 
this  distance  like  sharp  practice.  In  Massachusetts  it 
would  have  brought  such  a  storm  about  the  governor's 
ears  as  would  have  swept  him  off  the  coast.  But  the 
Dutch  do  not  seem  to  have  very  seriously  resented  it. 
The  truth  was,  it  was  rather  a  barren  victory  for  the 
Church.  The  Assembly  had  the  machinery  for  taxation 
in  their  own  hands,  and  they  would  not  be  likely  to  set 
it  going  under  the  circumstances.  The  governor  nom- 
inated a  rector  or  two  in  Long  Island,  but  no  salary 
was  forthcoming,  and  the  appointees  could  not  live  in 
these  parishes.  But  the  Act,  and  the  governor's  inter- 
pretation of  it,  placed  the  Church  legally  in  possession. 
It  fenced  all  others  out. 

When  the  English-speaking  Presbyterians,  immedi- 
ately afterward,  organized  their  first  society,  they  found 
they  could  not  take  title  to  the  land  where  they  wished 
to  build  their  church.  But  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  (Established)  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland  came 
to  their  relief.  A  committee  of  that  body,  a  corpora- 
tion known  to  the  laws  of  the  realm,  held  their  title  for 
them,  and  they  went  on  with  their  building. 

While  the  Presbyterians  were  thus  trying  to  start 
Plan  for  the  their  society,  and  the  phlegmatic  Dutch  were 
Episcopate,  seemingly  indifferent  to  the  whole  matter, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Miller,  the  chaplain  of  the  fort,  elaborated 
a  scheme  for  the  Church's  good,  which,  if  it  had  been 


66  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IX   THE   COLONIES. 

carried  out,  would  have  changed  tlie  future  ecclesiastical 
history  of  America.     His  plan  was  to 'have  a  Bishop 
sent  out.     lie    proposed    that    the    Bishop   of    London 
should  consecrate  a  suffragan  for  New  York.     There 
was  nothing  to  hinder.     The    province   was  a  Crown 
colony.     The  Church  was  now  established.     The  Bishop 
of  London  was  its  Ordinary.     He  could  not  look  after 
it   himself.     Why   not    appoint  a  suffragan  ?     jNIiller's 
plan   was,  as  he  states,   "to  use  the    King's  Farm,  at 
present  a  very  ordinary  thing,  yet  will  admit  of  consid- 
erable improvement,"  for  the  Bishop's  seat ;  that  a  sub- 
scription be  started  to  put  the  farm  in  order,  and  to 
])uild  a  Bishop's  Church;  that  the  large  sums  of  money 
now  raised  in  England  for  missionary  purposes  be  ad- 
ministered l)y  the   Bishop  of  New  York  ;  that  "  five  or 
six  sober  young  ministers  be  brought  over  with  Bibles 
and    Pi-ayer-Books   and    other    things    convenient   for 
Churches,  so  that  the  Bishop  with  these  powers,  q^uali- 
hcations,  and  supplies,  would  in  a  sliort  time,  through 
God's  assistance,  be  able  to  make  great  progress  in  the 
settlement,  and  in  the  correction  of  vice."     The  plan 
was  in  every  way  feasible,  and  is  almost  the  only  one  of 
all  the  plans  for  the  Episcopate  which  was  so.     At  this 
time  there  would  have  been  no  difficulty  in  the  way. 
The  Dutch  would  not  have  opposed  it,  and  it  is  hardly 
too  much  to  say  that  they  would  have   welcom,ed  it. 
Twenty-five  years  later  it  would  have  been  impc^sible 
in  any  of  the  colonies.     By  that  time  the  idea  of  an 
ultimate  separation  from  the  mother  country  had  found 
a  lodgement.     No   institution   not  already  here,' which 
might  seem  to  linit  the  bonds  more  tightly,  would  be 


THE   DUTCH.  67 

tolerated.  In  1695  this  was  not  the  case.  Loj^alty  was 
then  universal,  and  dissent  was  only  in  its  second  gener- 
ation. It  had  not  gained  the  strength  of  prescription. 
What  really  did  stand  in  the  way  of  this  and  every 
other  attempt  to  secure  the  Episcopate  here  was  the 
extensive  and  minute  ignorance  which  obtained  among 
English  Churchmen  concerning  colonial  affairs.  The 
idea  of  a  Bishop  in  the  American  wilderness  was  as 
grotesque  to  them  as  now  Avould  be  the  suggestion  of  a 
professor  of  the  higher  mathematics  among  the  Zulus. 
It  was  not  till  fifty  years  later  that  Berkeley  saw  the 
star  of  empire  westward  take  its  way.  And  vision  as 
clear  as  his  was  just  about  as  common  as  seers  always 
are.  Poor  Chaplain  Miller's  well-digested  plan  was 
not  even  considered.  It  was  not  possible  a  second 
time  for  a  whole  century. 

Meanwhile  the  Church  people  of  New  York  drew 
together  and  organized  Trinity  Parish  in  1697.  The 
Trinity  Church  made  all  the  freeholders  af  the  town 

Church.  electors   to  choose  wardens  and  vestrymen  ; 

made  the  Bishop  of  London  rector  at  a  salary  of  one 
hundred  pounds  a  year ;  the  salary  was  to  he  raised  by 
assessment  upon  real  estate ;  the  new  church  was  to  be, 
as  the  royal  representative  phrased  it,  "our  sole  and 
only  parish  church  and  churchyard  in  this  our  said  City 
of  New  York." 

The  Church  was  built,  and  is  described  as  "stand- 
ing very  pleasantly  on  the  banks  of  Hudson  River, 
and  has  a  large  cemetery  on  each  side,  and  is  enclosed 
in  front  by  a  painted  paled  fence.  Its  revenue  is 
vestricted  by  Act  of  Assembly  to  five  hundred  pounds, 


68  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

but  it  is  possessed  of  a  farm  at  the  north  end  of 
the  city,  which  is  lately  rented,  and  will  in  the  course 
of  a  few  years,  it  is  hoped,  produce  a  considerable 
income." 

The  hope  seems  to  have  been  well  founded. 


THE   SOUTH   RIVER.  69 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE   SOUTH    RIVER. 

The  Hudson  was  the  "North  River,"  the  Dela- 
ware the  "South  River."  To  find  the  colonists  for 
this  last,  we  must  cross  to  the  continent  as  we  did 
for  the  Hudson.  We  will  bring  settlers  of  a  foreign 
speech,  but  of  a  church  akin  to  the  English. 

When  the  great  Gustavus  Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden, 
laid  down  his  life  on  the  field  of  Lutzen,  his  great  chan- 
cellor, Oxenstiern,  took  up  his  master's  task 
The  Swedes.     ^^    ^^^^^    ^^    ^^^.^^^^^      ^^    ^^^^    ,^^^^^    ^^    ^^^^ 

where  his  reformed  Swedes  might  be  safe  from  their 
ancient  enemy.  Like  the  other  leaders  of  his  time,  liis 
thouo-hts  turned  to  America.  Under  the  chancellor's 
patronage,  Peter  Minuit  organized  his  little  colon}^,  and 
landed  with  them  at  Wilmington,  1637.  They  were 
Lutheran  Episcopalians.  Sweden  had  been  fortunate 
enough  to  come  out  of  the  storm  of  her  reformation 
with  her  Hierarchy  standing  ;  somewhat  damaged,  to  be 
sure,  but  sufficiently  secure  to  gain  recognition.  The 
Minister  who  came  with  the  Swedish  colony,  and  his 
brethren  who  followed  him,  had  all  been  episcopally 
ordained.  They  liad  a  history,  a  liturgy,  a  church  life. 
When  they  came  in  contact  with  the  English  Church 
at  Philadelphia  and  Wilmington,  they  coalesced  with  it 


TO         THE   ENGLISH    CHUUCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

without  any  questions  asked  on  either  hand.^  But  they 
did  not  meet  with  fiiendly  Englislnnen.  Their  nearest 
neio-hbors  were  the  Dutch  on  the  Hudson  and  in  the 
Jerseys.  These  were  a  sturdy,  thrifty  people,  who 
knew  good  hind  when  they  saw  it.  They  had  no  no- 
tion of  allowing  the  Swedes  to  intrude.  That,  the}^ 
themselves  had  no  rights,  did  not  affect  the  question. 
They  had  possession.  Frequent  expeditions  were  sent 
out  from  New  Amsterdam  to  drive  the  Swedes  away 
from  the  Delaware.  These  expeditions  were  badly 
managed,  and  in  fact  the  old  soldiers  of  Gustavus  were 
more  than  a  match  for  tlie  fur-traders  of  the  Hudson. 
They  held  their  own  and  increased  until  sturdy  Peter 
Stuyvesant  undertook  the  task  of  conquest.  But  the 
Dutch  victory  was  short-lived.  Plardly  had  Stuyvesant 
returned  victorious  when  Colonel  Nichols  with  the  Eng- 
lish fleet  appeared  in  the  East  River,  and  the  Dutch  and 
Swedes   both  lost  their  titles.     New  Netherlands   and 

New    Sweden    both    passed    back  without  a 
Absorption  i        t^   •   •  i  »     j< 

bythsEng-     struggle   under   the    British   crown.     A   tew 

^  ■  recruits    continued    to    come    to    the    lower 

counties,   but   not   enough    to   leave    permanently  any 

trace  of  their  speech,  their  church,  or  their  liabits,  in 

the  New  World.     Their  few  parishes,  at  Philadelphia^ 

Wilmington,,  and  Chester,    passed   gradually  into   the 

Church  of  England,  and  were  absorbed.     Two  or  three 

quaint  old  churches,  always  known  locally  as  the  "-Old 

Swedes,"  are  all    that   survive.     A  hundred   and  fifty 

years    later   the    Swedish    Episcopacy   came    in    sight 

'   I'ern  :    History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,  vol.    i.    \>.  2:ia. 
Perry  :  Historical  Collections:  vol.  Pennsylvania,  p.  432. 


THE   .SOUTH   IHVEU.  71 

again,  in  connection  with  the  visit  of  America's  first 
Bishops  to  Enghind  for  conseci'atiou,  but  by  tliat  time 
the  two  churches,  once  neighbors,  and  well  acquaintetl, 
liad  drifted  so  far  apart  that  tlie  Swedes'  offer  of  the 
bishopric  was  Iiardly  considered.^ 

The  real  settlers    of   the    Delaware    were    preparing 

in  another  quarter.     In  1(340,  George  P'ox,  the  son  of 

a  Leicestershire  weaver,   was  herding-  sheep 

George  Fox.       „  :    ,  ,       .  ,  or 

lor  a  neighboring  farmer.     In  his  solitude  he 

dreamed  dreams  and  saw  visions.  It  was  an  age  of  the 
fiercest  theological  controversy.  For  tliree  generations 
Englishmen  had  thought  and  spoken  of  hardly  any- 
thing else.  All  social,  political,  economical  questions 
were  religious  ones  at  bottom.  Tlie  common  people 
were,  and  had  long  been,  perplexed  and  ill  at  ease.  The 
religious  atmosphere  was  stormy.  i\Ien  had  lost  their 
leaders.  In  the  old  days  the  yokel  had  not  disturbed 
himself  about  his  soul.  Tliat  was  the  priest's  business ; 
he  was  paid  for  it.  But  now  everything  was  changed. 
The  okl  priests  were  gone,  and  the  new  ones  were 
somewhat  puzzling.  They  would  give  absolution  —  at 
a  pinch  — but  they  would  not  warrant  it.  They  would 
hear  confessions,  but  the  penances  they  imposed  were 
of  a  new-fangled  kind,  involving  doctrines  and  experi- 
ences which  were  strange.  At  church  the  common 
man  did  not  know  very  well  how  to  behave.  In  one 
parish  he  seemed  to  see  the  old  mass,  in  another  he 
heard  a  preacher  hold  forth  in  language  not  clearly 
intelligible.  He  heard  his  neighbors  discussing  theology 
continually.     Every  man   had  a  psalm   or  a  doctrine. 

1  Beardsley:   I^ife  of  Seabury. 


72         THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN  THE   COLONIES. 

Salvation  was  no  longer  the  simple  thing  it  had  once 
seemed  to  be.  It  could  no  longer  be  bought,  delivered, 
and  paid  for,  as  it  could  in  the  good  old  days  of  the 
grandfathers.  What  the  common  peoj^le  craved  was 
a  simple,  portable  evangel ;  something  which  was  not 
mixed  up  with  Spanish  marriages,  logical  tourna- 
ments, abstruse  doctrines,  political  policies.  Who- 
ever would  discover  such  would  be  accounted  a 
benefactor. 

Fox  turned  his  dreamy  eyes  within,  and  found  God. 
The  Spirit  of  God  bearing  witness  with  his  spirit,  —  that 
was  the  substance  of  religion.  To  find  the  trutli,  one 
needs  only  to  commune  with  his  own  heart  and  be  still. 
This  "  Inner  Light "  was  not  only  the  final  but  the  sole 
guide  which  it  is  safe  to  follow.  It  is  the  simplest  of 
all  ideas.  It  at  a  single  stroke  renders  superfluous  all 
i,he  machinery  of  the  Church.  Why  turn  to  doctor  or 
council,  to  priest  or  preacher,  if  one  can  look  within 
and  see  the  Holy  Ghost?  He  needed  not  to  be  in- 
structed of  any  man. 

It  was  natural  that  Fox's  idea  should  be  caught  up. 

Indeed,  it  was  in  the  air  already,  and  had  been  for  half 

a  century.     The    Mystics,  Mennonites,  Ana- 

Qiiftlcftrisin 

baptists,  Baptists,  and  "•  Fifth  Monarchy " 
men  in  England  had  all  held  by  it.  But  it  was  Fox's 
strength  that  he  set  out  the  idea  in  its  naked  simplicity. 
All  before  him  had  entangled  it  with  questions  of  social 
freedom,  ecclesiastical  organization,  fantastic  ritual,  paid 
what  not.  Fox  held  it  up  in  its  sheer  nakedness.  The 
common  people  seized  upon  it  as  hung^ry  men  do  bread. 
It  swept  over  England  like  a  craze.      Thb  lanes  and 


THE   SOUTH   KIVER.  73 

hedges  were  filled  with  the  preachers  of  the  New  Light. 
They  declared  that  when  the  light  shone  v/ithin  them 
they  did  "exceedingly  fear  and  quake," — and  the 
ribald  dubbed  them  "  Quakers/'  at  their  word.  At  first 
they  were  merely  religious  enthusiasts,  but  they  quickly 
became  something  n)ore.  One  begins  by  breaking  loose 
from  religious  ordinances  ;  it  is  but  a  step  farther  to  find 
one's  self  beyond  the  regulations  of  the  State  and  the 
family.  They  became  fanatics  of  a  very  dangerous  sort. 
All  the  powers  of  society  were  trained  upon  them  to 
put  them  down.  There  seemed  good  reason  for  their 
suppression.  Only  two  generations  earlier  the  Bund- 
schuh  had  waded  in  blood  through  German}'.  The 
peasants'  uprising  in  Elizabeth's  day  was  not  forgot- 
ten. These  Quakers  appeared  to  be  setting  out  on  the 
same  path.  Those  others  had  also  begun  by  claiming  a 
Divine  illumination,  and  had  ended  in  lust,  violence, 
and  cruelty.  The  magistrates,  the  priests,  the  nobility, 
and  the  citizens  joined  hands  for  their  extermination. 
Then  persecution  drove  tliem  mad.  Under  its  stress 
they  passed  into  that  riotous  phase  which  it  is  difficult 
to  associate  mentally  with  the  restrained,  russet^clad  folk 
whom  we  know  by  their  name.  Tliey  were  impelled  by 
Extrava-         ^   consuming   fire.     They  "bore   their  testi- 

gance  and  mouy  "  up  and  dowu  the  earth.  One  of 
repression. 

them  bearded  the    Grand  Turk   to  his  face  : 

another  tore  liis  cap  to  rags  before  Cromwell  as  a  testi- 
mony against  him.  They  visited  Scotland  and  Ireland, 
the  West  India  Islands,  and  the  North  American  Colo- 
nies ;  they  were  imprisoned  by  the  Inquisitor  at  Malta  ; 
one  brother  visited  Jerusalem  and  bore  his  testimony 


74         THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IN   THE   COLONIES. 

against  the  superstition  of  the  monks. ^  Naked  women, 
smeared  with  soot  and  filth,  stalked  about  the  streets 
and  into  English  churches  and  New  England  meeting- 
houses. They  throve  upon  persecution.  They  fairly 
broke  into  gaol  and  clamored  to  be  hanged.  The  crim- 
inal law  at  the  time  was  brutal  at  the  Ijest.  Leprous 
gaols,  in  which  the  prisoner  was  left  to  starve,  the  stocks, 
the  pillory,  the  lash  at  the  cart's  tail,  the  hangman  with 
his  searing  iron  and  quartering  knife,  stood  round  about 
the  violator  of  the  law  or  the  disturber  of  the  peace. 
The  Quaker  was  both,  and  he  looked  upon  the  pains 
which  confronted  him,  not  merely  serenely  but  with 
exalted  joy.  What  could  be  done  with  such  men? 
The   law  of  every  land  in  Christendom  was 

Efforts  to  •' 

suppress  the    against  them.     But  these  laws  could  not  be 

Qll3.kGFS 

enforced  effectively  without  a  sustained  sav- 
agery of  which  Anglo-Saxons  have  more  than  once 
shown  themselves  to  be  incapable.  The  attempt  was 
made.  Five  thousand  of  them  were  in  gaol  at  once.^ 
They  were  threatened,  mobbed,  pelted,  ducked,  fined, 
imprisoned,  banished,  their  ears  were  cropped,  they  were 
laid  in  the  stocks,  whipped  from  market  town  to  market 
town,  shut  up  in  nvdd-houses,  and  finally  hanged.  In  the 
end  the  persecution  gradually  ceased,  and  the  Quakers' 
ill-reerulated  enthusiasm  exhausted  itself.  But  by  this 
time  they  had  become  a  marked  people.  They  had 
begun  by  ignoring  the  constant  fact  that  religion  as  a 
spirit  cannot    sul)sist   disembodied.      Tliey  had    turned 

1  Rev.    Henry    Ferguson:    in   Cliurch    Review,    January,   188!).      (A 
most  admirable  article  upon  the  Quaker  episode  in  Nevt'  England.) 
-  Rowntree:  Quakers,  Past  and  Present,  p.  72. 


THE   SOUTH    RIVER.  75 

their  backs  upon  the  sacraments  of  Christ's  appoint- 
ment, and  this  violation  of  a  la^v  of  God,  which  is  also 
a  law  of  human  nature,  revenged  itself  upon  them  by 
compelling  them  to  elevate  into  sacraments  a  certain 
whimsical  misuse  of  pronouns  and  a  fantastic  dress. 
They  had  also  learned  self-control.  The  Spirit  no 
longer  possessed  them  ;  they  possessed  it.  They  be- 
came the  same  self-contained,  prudent,  negatively  good 
folk  their  few  surviving  descendants  still  are.  They 
had  earned  and  compelled  that  curious,  half-contempt- 
uous good-will  which  is  still  accorded  to  them. 

Like  all  classes  who  wei-e  uncomfortable  in  Europe, 
they  began  to  look  to  America.  In  1()73,  Fox  came 
Quakers  in  himself  to  Spy  out  the  land.  He  made  an 
New  Jersey,  extended  tour  of  observation  from  Maine  to 
South  Carolina.  In  every  colony,  after  he  left  Massa- 
chusetts, he  found  people  who  looked  upon  him  as  one 
sent  of  God.  Some  oi  them  were  refugees  from  England 
and  the  Barbadoes,  and  some  were  sporadic.  A  f ter  going 
up  and  down  the  coast,  he  went  home  and  organized  a 
colony  of  Friends,  whose  agents  bought  for  them,  for  five 
thousand  dollars,  the  western  half  of  Southern  Jersey. 
In  1675  the  ship  Griffith  brought  them  out  and  landed 
them  at  Salem.  To  this  new  settlement  Quakers  flocked 
by  scores  and  hundreds.  They  were  left  to  organize 
the  colony  after  their  own  fashion.  Religious  liberty 
was  its  corner-stone.  They  would  persecute  no  man, 
they  would  not  even  defend  themselves.  "There,"  in 
Bancroft's  words,  ''in  lliSl,  met  the  iirst  legislative 
assembly  in  the  world,  who  said  thee  and  thou  to  all 
men,  and  wore   their   hats    in  presence  of   beggar  and 


76         THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

king."  Their  little  colony  of  Salem  remained  thriving 
quietly  and  develoj^ing  its  own  peculiar  life  until  it  was 
brought  into  touch  with  the  rest  of  the  world  by  the 
coming  of  a  larger  immigration  of  the  same  folk 
under  a  leader  whose  name  has  become  known  on  two 
continents. 

William  Penn  is  one  of  the  most  striking  and  j^ictur- 
esque  figures  in  history.  His  father  Avas  a  cliolei'ic  Eng- 
lish admiral,  and  his  mother  a  gentle  German 
mystic.  Wlien  their  son  was  a  lad  of  sixteen, 
a  student  at  Oxford,  he  clianced  to  hear  the  wandering 
Quaker  preacher  Loe,  and  saw  the  "  Inner  Light."  His 
tutors  and  spiritual  pastors  and  masters  labored  in  vain 
to  withdraw  him  from  the  sect  with  which  he  cast  in  his 
lot,  but  the  enthusiasm  Avas  in  his  blood  from  his  mother. 
When  they  could  not  prevail,  they  sent  him  home  to  his 
father.  The  admiral  stormed  at  him,  coaxed  him,  rea- 
soned with  liim,  beat  him,  but  the  gentle  lad  stood  firm. 
Then  his  father  sent  him  abroad,  thinking  that  change 
of  scene  would  cure  him.  He  furnished  him  with  let- 
ters to  the  gayest  and  most  fashionable  people,  thinking 
to  distract  him.  Penn  went  to  the  Continent  a  dream- 
ing Quaker  lad,  and  returned  an  accomplished  Quaker 
gentleman.  He  lived  long  at  the  French  court,  and 
learned  manners  in  the  society  to  which  his  renowned 
father's  letters  gained  him  admission.  He  studied  at  a 
Swiss  university,  and  learned  the  theology  of  Calvin. 
He  lived  with  the  Mennonites  on  the  Rhine,  and  found 
them  of  his  spiritual  kin.  He  returned  to  England  a 
courtier,  a  tbeologian,  a  philosopher,  the  master  of  three 
living  languages  and  two  dead  ones,  a  graceful  leader 


THE   SOUTH   RIVER.  77 

of  the  minuet,  the  most  expert  small-swordsman  in 
Europe,  and  a  Quaker  still.  He  inherited  his  grand- 
father's great  fortune,  and  won  the  friendship  of  the 
dissolute  Kino-.  Thenceforth  he  devoted  his  life  and 
wealth  to  the  fortunes  of  his  co-religionists,  and  won 
thereby,  as  he  richly  merited,  both  fame  and  wealth.  A 
part  of  his  inheritance  was  a  claim  against  the  Crown 
for  sixteen  thousand  pounds.  It  was  regarded  as  the 
poorest  of  assets,  but  Penn  was  willing  to  take  his  pay 
in  that  which  cost  the  King  nothing  but  his  signature. 
In  quittance  of  his  claim  he  secured  Penns3-lvania. 
Both  parties  were  well  pleased,  the  King  to  have  his 
cancelled  bond,  and  Penn  to  have  a  new  land  for  his 
people.  In  1681  Penn  brought  his  large  and  well- 
equipped  colony  up  the  Delaware,  passed  Salem,  where 
their  friends  had  preceded  them,  and  began 
'  the  settlement  of  Philadelphia.  To  his  great 
good-fortune,  he  found  his  land  occupied  by  Indians  of 
a  spirit  similar  to  that  of  his  own  people.  The  Dela- 
wares  had  been  harried  and  beaten  by  their  fierce 
northern  neighbors,  the  Iroquois,  till  they  were  in  no 
fighting  mood.  His  own  good-will  and  fair  spirit  gave 
them  confidence,  and  led  to  that  honorable  treaty  under 
the  elm  tree  on  the  bank  of  Shackamaxon  Creek. 
Penn's  colony  was  spared  the  chapter  of  privation  and 
want  which  all  the  others  had  passed  through.  It  was 
strong  from  the  start,  and  recruits  came  every  month. 
The  "  New  Liglit ''  had  been  spreading  rapidly.  There 
were  fifty  thousand  Quakers  in  England  alone.^  In 
Wales  their  meetings  were  springing  up  on  every  hand. 

1  Rowntree:  Quakerism,  Past  and  Present,  p.  72. 


78         THE   ENGLISH   CllUliCll   IN    THE   COLONIES. 

In  Germany  a  mnltitiide  of  kindred  spirits  liad  leanuvl 
to  know  Penn.i  From  all  these  sources  immigrants 
came  pouring  in. 

It  was  meant  to  be  for  all  time  a  Quaker  State,  but 
the  names  of  its  founders  are  now  to  be  looked  for  upon 
the  Communicants'  lists  of  the  Church.  The  descend- 
ants of  Penn  and  Jennings  and  Shi})pen,  of  the  Welsh 
Evans  and  Roberts,  are  now  Episcopalians.  The  sect 
ceased  long  ago  to  be  a  power  in  America.  It  never 
made  an}-  converts  in  this  country.  When  it  had  re- 
ceived the  last  of  the  immigrants  who  liad  become 
Quakers  over  the  sea,  its  growth  ceased,  and  long  before 
that  time  it  had  begun  to  lose.  The  reason  why  is 
plain.  Its  fundamental  tenet  was  false.  This  central 
error  had  become  incased  in  a  setting  of  customs  and 
forms  which  has  survived  with  great  tenacity,  but  has 
had  no  power  of  propagation. 

Why  those  who  freed   themselves  from   Quakerism 
should,  as  a  rule,  have  come  into  the  Church,  is  not  at 
first   sight  so  plain.      It  has  not   been   the 
ingtothe        forms  or  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  which 
Church.  ^^^^  drawn  them,  but   its   spirit.     The  self- 

contained  righteousness  of  life,  the  distrust  of  enthusi- 
asm, the  decency  and  propriety  which  have  always  been 
the  Church's  marks,  have  constituted  the  magnet.  The 
Quaker,  turned  Churchman,  has  made  a  marked  change 
outwardly,  but  it  has  not  been  accompanied  by  any 
wrench  of  the  inner  spirit.  For  this  cause  the  giadual 
disintegration  of  that  sect  has  been  a  constant  source 
of   gain  to  the  Church.     It  began  by  a  quarrel  among 

1  Graham:   Colonial  History  of  United  Status,  vol.  i.  p.  548. 


THE  SOUTH  niVEii.  79 

the  Quakers  thems(ilve.s.  The  Salem  coh)ny  employed 
a  Scotch  Presbyterian,  George  Keith,  a  graduate  of  the 
University  of  Aberdeen,  in  the  capacity  of 
land-surveyor.  It  was  his  first  acquaintance 
with  the  Friends.  He  became  deeply  interested  in  them 
and  their  peculiar  doctrine  and  customs.  Presently  he 
saw  the  "  Inner  Light "  himself,  and  became  one  of  them. 
He  was  a  valuable  recruit.  He  was,  to  begin  with,  an 
educated  man,  and  they  had  few  such.  He  was,  besides, 
a  born  controversialist  and  pamphleteer.  He  set  their 
vague  thoughts  to  words.  He  challenged  their  oppo- 
nents to  debate,  and  became  their  dexterous  champion. 
His  pamphlets  and  tracts  were  eagerly  welcomed,  not 
only  by  the  Jersey  Quakers,  but  by  the  more  important 
society  in  Philadelphia.  The  Philadelphians  invited 
him  to  come  to  them,  as  head  master  of  their  school. 
He  quickly  became  their  leading  man,  their  David 
against  the  Philistines.  But  presently  there  began  to 
be  whisperings  that  their  champion  was  not  sound  in 
the  faith.  He  began  to  intimate  that,  while  the  "  Inner 
Light "  was  necessary,  it  needed  something  besides  itself. 
The  "  candle  should  have  a  candlestick  ; "  "  the  spirit 
must  needs  have  a  body."  This  heresy  struck  at  the 
root  of  Fox's  simple  system,  and  the  Quaker  instinct 
quickly  discovered  the  fact.  A  period  of  controversy 
within  the  Society  ensued.  Keith  had  many  friends 
and  followers,  and  was  far  more  than  a  match  for  hi? 
opponents  in  argument.  Finally  the  "  Yearly  Meeting  " 
passed  a  formal  condemnation  upon  him.  He  issued  a 
Vindication,  for  the  publishing  of  which  William  Brad- 
ford, printer,  was  sent  to  jail  by  the  Quakers  in  their 


so         THE   ENGLISH   CIIUUCII    IX   THE   COLONIES. 

magisterial  capacity.  Keitli  accepted  his  expulsion,  and 
set  up  a  separate  Meeting,  where  he  drew  a  large  follow- 
ing. An  acrimonious  controversy  followed,  which  con- 
vulsed the  settlement  and  arrayed  friend  against  friend.^ 
While  it  raged  Keith  went  to  England  upon  private 
business.  While  there  he  took  occasion  to  re-examine 
the  Avhole  question  in  a  broader  spirit,  and  was  led  to 
the  Church  of  England,  in  which  he  took  orders.  We 
shall  presently  see  him  return  as  lier  first  missionary. 

There  was  a  provision  in  the  terms  of  Penn's  grant 
to  the  effect  that  if  ever  twenty  people  in  the  colony 
First  Pennsyi-  ^^kould  petition  therefor,  they  should  have  the 
vama  Church.  y[g\^i  to  organize  a  Church  of  England  parish, 
and  apply  to  the  Bishop  of  London  for  a  minister.  In 
1695  such  a  petition  was  circulated,  signed,  among 
others,  by  several  hundred  of  the  "•  Keitliian  Quakers," 
The  Quakers  raged  furiously  against  it — (if  Quakers 
can  rage  furiously),  —  and  the  magistrates  had  the  at- 
torney who  drew  up  the  petition  arrested,  together  with 
several  of  the  signers.  Their  action  was,  however,  so 
evidently  without  law,  that  nothing  beyond  annoyance 
and  ill-will  came  of  it.  By  tins  time  the  Quakers  had 
been  so  overslaughed  by  other  immigration  that,  taking 
the  whole  colony  together,  they  constituted  less  than 
one-third  the  population.  Among  these  otliers  the 
majority  were  nominally  Church  of  England  peo})le. 
About  this  time  services  of  the  Church  began  to  be 
held  in  Philadelphia.     Neither  the  time  nor  the  place 


1  The  ilocumeiits  witli  which  the  parties  assailed  one  aiiotlier  are,  for 
the  most  part,  preserved  in  William  Bradford's  Publications,  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Historical  Society's  rooms,  and  are  curious  reading. 


THE   SOUTH    KIVEK.  81 

of  tlie  first  Common-Prayer  worsliip  can  now  be  known. 
The  Rev.  jNIr.  Sewell  of  jNIaryland  is  tlie  first  clergyman 
who  comes  in  sight.  He  visited  Phihidelpliia  from  time 
to  time,  and  held  occasional  services  for  the  Church 
folk.  The  original  place  of  worship  is  described  as  "a 
wooden  shed,  with  a  bell  swung  in  the  crutch  of  a  tree 
near  by."  Py  1700  Christ  Church  had  been  organized, 
a  brick  church  costing  six  hundred  pounds  had  been 
l)nilt,  and  the  Rev.  Thomas  Clayton,  the  first  incum- 
bent, had  taken  charge.  The  town  was  still  strongly 
under  the  domination  of  Quakerism,  but  the  Keithians 
were  ready  to  come  into  the  Church.  In  the  first  few 
years  of  the  parish  more  than  five  hundred  of  them 
Increase  and  '^vere  baptized.  The  growth  was  more  rapid, 
spread.  however,  in  the  outlying  settlements  than  it 

was  at  the  centre.  Especially  did  it  gain  ground  among 
the  Welsh,  whose  seat  was  west  of  the  Schuylkill.  In 
1700  there  were  missions  planted  at  Radnor,  Concord, 
Chester,  and  Perkiomen.  These  became  the  nuclei  for 
the  scattered  Cliurch  families  in  the  back  settlements, 
and  the  Church  grew  apace  in  Penn's  colony. 


82         THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

The   CAROLINAS. 

The  first  church  in  South  Carolina  was  built  the 
same  year  that  Penn's  colony  landed  on  the  Delaware. 
The  life  of  that  colony  had  been  feeble  and  turbulent. 
The  Gentleman's  Magazine  for  1740  gives  a  curious 
but  apocryphal  account  of  the  planting  of  the  Church 
among  the  palmettos.  The  story  is,  that  on  Good 
Friday,  1660,  two  ships  laden  with  English  adven- 
turers landed  at  Port  Royal,  The  company  piled  their 
goods  on  the  beach,  and  the  ships  which  had  brought 
them  sailed  away  home.  The  adventurers,  ignorant 
alike  of  woodcraft  and  husbandry,  when  a  few  months 
had  passed,  found  themselves  starving.  They  were  for- 
tunate in  having  a  brave  chaplain,  Morgan  Jones,  a 
Welshman.  In  their  extremity  he  offered,  Avith  a  few 
Indians  and  others,  to  make  the  perilous  journey  in  search 
Welsh.  of  Raleigh's    colony  on    the    Roanoke,  —  of 

whose  destruction  they  were  ignorant,  —  to  gain  succor 
for  the  rest.  After  many  days'  journey  the  little  band 
were  taken  prisoners  by  the  Tuscaroras.  They  were 
bound  to  the  stake,  and  the  savages  stood  about  impa- 
tient to  l)egin  the  torture.  In  his  dire  extremity  Jones 
returned  unconsciously  to  his  mother  tongue,  and  mut- 
tered his  prayers  in  Welsh.  To  his  amazement,  he 
found  that  "  the  salvages  did   right  well    understand 


THE   CAROLIXAS.  83 

his  speech."  The  captives'  bonds  were  cut  and  they 
were  respited  from  immediate  torture,  but  detained  as 
captives.  Jones  continued  to  teach  the  Indians  in 
Welsh,  and  so  gained  their  good-will  that  he  and  his 
companions  were  set  free,  and  by  some  means  found 
their  way  north.  In  1680  this  same  Morgan  Jones  was 
officiating  at  Newtown,  L.I.^ 

The  real  settlement  of  the  Carolinas  was  not  until 
1670.  A  company  had  been  formed  which  included 
the  Lord  Chancellor,  Shaftesbury,  Albemarle,  Berkeley, 
The  "noble"  Ashley,  and  Carteret.  The  colony  which 
colony.  tj^ey    gg,^^  Q^^l-  settled  at  "  Charles's  town." 

This  was  a  "Crown  Colony,"  and  had  no  religious 
motive.  It  was  purely  commercial.  Of  course,  as 
being  an  integral  part  of  the  kingdom,  the  Church  Avas, 
in  a  certain  vague  way,  established.  But  in  the  fierce 
struggle  with  nature,  which  is  the  first  task  of  a  colony, 
religious  differences  are  not  much  emphasized,  unless 
the  company  settling  should  have  been  moved  by  relig- 
ious motives  in  their  migration.  The  character  of  the 
founders  of  this  colony  was  not  such  as  to  lead  them  lo 
take  much  interest  in  such  questions.  A  few  men  of 
noble  birth,  though  questionable  manners,  were  among 
them,  but  the  majority  were  adventurers  and  broken 
men.  By  the  time  the  colony  had  reached  a  popula- 
tion of  five  thousand,  the  Bishop  of  London  sent  his 
Commissary  to  organize  the  Church.  He  reports :  "  I 
never  I'^uented  of  anything,  my  sins  excepted,  as  my 

1  This  cm-ions  belief  in  the  identity  of  the  Welsh  and  Indian  tnngues 
crops  up  repeatedly  in  tlie  accounts  of  the  early  settlements,  and  at  points 
most  remote  from  each  other. 


84  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IN   THE  COLONIES. 

coming  to  this  place.     The  peo})le  here  are  the  vilest 

race  of  men  upon  the  eartli.     They  have  neither  honor, 

..  .  honesty,     nor    religion,  —  being    a    perfect 

condition  of     liotch-potcli    made    up    of    bankrupt    pirates, 
the  colony.         i  t         i         ■  •  ^  ^        ■ 

decayed  libertines,  sectaries,  and  enthusi- 
asts of  all  sorts,  who  have  transported  themselves  here 
from  Bermudas,  Jamaica,  Barbadoes,  New  England,  and 
Pennsylvania,  and  are  the  most  factious  and  seditious 
people  ill  the  whole  world.  Many  of  those  who  pre- 
tend to  be  Churchmen  are  strangely  crippled  in  their 
goings  between  the  Church  and  Presbytery,  and,  as 
they  are  of  large  and  loose  principles,  so 'they  live  and 
act  accordingly,  sometimes  going  openly  with  the  Dis- 
senters, as  they  do  now  against  the  Church,  and  giving 
incredible  trouble  to  the  government  and  clergy/' 

In  the  inevitable  quarrel  between  the  people  and  the 
proprietaries,  the  Church  of  England  in  South  Carolina 
sided  against  the  people,  and  the  Presbyterians  with 
them.  This  will  account  for  '^  their  crippled  goings  be- 
tween the  Church  and  Presbytery."  The  Church  gained 
ground  slowly,  if  at  all.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revo- 
lution, nearly  a  century  later,  there  was  only  the  one 
l)arish  which  had  been  organized  in  1682.  It  was  not 
until  well  along  in  the  nineteenth  centuiy  that  substan- 
tial growth  began.i  At  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth 
century  there  was  in  Charleston  "  a  large  and  stately 
Theestab-  c^i^i't^h  of  cypress  logs,  on  a  brick  foun- 
lishment.  datioii,  surrouiided  by  white  palisades,"  and 
named  St.  Philip's.  An  act  of  the  Colonial  Assembly 
of   1698    named  Samuel  Marshall  its   incumbent;    ap- 

>  Graham:  Colonial  History  of  U.S.,  vol.  i.  p.  339. 


ritE  CAROLIXAS.  85 

propriated  to  liim  and  his  successors  forever  a  salary 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  per  annum,  to  be 
raised  by  assessment ;  and  ordered  that  ^'  a  neo-ro  man 
and  woman  and  four  cows  and  calves  be  purchased  at 
the  public  charge,  for  his  use." 


THE  ENGLISH  CUUilCH  IN  TilE  COLONIES. 


CHAPTER   VIII.  . 

A   GENERAL    SURVEY. 

We  have  now  seen  the  stage  set  and  the  actors 
appear.  With  the  single  exception  of  Georgia  the 
colonies  are  now  all  established.  We  liave  seen  who 
their  settlers  are,  whence  tliey  came,  why  they  came, 
and  how  they  bore  themselves  religiously  in  the  early 
days.  We  have  brought  English  Churchmen  to  the 
James,  English  Puritans  to  jNIassachusetts  Bay,  Dutch 
Presbyterians  to  the  Hudson,  English  Romanists  to  the 
Potomac,  Swedish  Churchmen  and  English  Quakers  to 
the  Delaware,  and  a  congeries  of  English-speaking  ad- 
venturers, under  noble  patronage,  to  the  Carolinas.  We 
have  seen  the  divei'se  problems  presented  to  the  Church 
of  England  in  the  presence  of  peoples  so  unlike.  In  one 
place,  its  task  was  to  retain  its  original  establishment ; 
in  another,  to  gain  a  foothold  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile 
community;  in  another,  to  march  with  an  equal  step 
amouCT  its  rivals  in  a  free  field.  The  end  of  the  first 
century  of  its  life  in  America  will  be  a  fitting  place  to 
pause  and  take  a  broad  survey  of  its  situation,  to  count 
its  gains  and  losses,  to  observe  its  manner  of  life, 
to  examine  the  people  among  whom  it  is  to  do  its 
work  in  the  years  to  follow,  to  test  its  spirit  and  its 
metliods. 


A   GENERAL   SURVEY.  87 

The  great  bulk  of  the  Church  in  1700  was  in  Vir- 
ginia and  Maryland.  Forty  of  tlie  less  than  threescore 
The  year  clergy  scattered  from  Portsmouth  to  Charles- 
1700.  ^Qi^  were  in  these  two  colonies.     There  were 

in  them  two  or  three  comfortable  churches,  built  of  im- 
ported brick.  In  every  settlement  was  a  church  of  logs, 
with  puncheon  floors  and  clapboard  roof.  The  popula- 
tion was  purely  agricultural  and  widely  scattered.  To 
these  little  log  chapels  the  peoj^le  came,  on  horseback 
and  in  canoes,  from  twenty,  thirty,  and  forty  miles 
away.i  They  often  left  their  distant  plantations  on  the 
Saiuiday  and  sj)ent  the  niglit  with  their  hospitable 
friends  who  lived  nearer  the  place  of  worship.  Never 
more  than  one  service  was  held  on  the  Sunday.  The 
afternoon  was  needed  for  the  congreofation  to  return  to 
their  far-away  homes.  Prayer-Books  were  scarce  and 
costly .2  As  late  as  the  middle  of  the  century  only  two 
Prayer-  editions  had  been  printed  in  England  beside 

Books.  |-]^g  ponderous  folios  and  quartos  for  the  read- 

ing-desks. Of  the  smaller  Prayer-Books  very  few  found 
their  way  to  the  colonies,  and  were  but  ill  adapted  to 
the  worshippers'  use,  at  best.  The  arrangement  of  the 
services  in  them  was  so  intricate  as  hardly  to  be  intelli- 
gible. The  Clerks  therefore,  was  depended  upon  for  all 
the  responses,  except  in  the  portions  of  the  service 
which  the  people  knew  by  heart.  The  surplice  Avas 
Tery  rarely  used.  Indeed,  it  is  doubtful  if  there  were 
then  more  than  two  or  three  in  America. 

In  England  the   ordinary  street  dress  of  the  clergy 

1  King's  Handbook  of  Episcopal  Churches,  p.  13. 

2  Perry:  History,  vol.  i.  p.  475. 


88  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

was  the  cassock.^     In  America  this  dress  does  not  seem 
ever   to  have  come  into  use.     In  public  the    minister 
Social  status    officiated  in  the  ordinary  dress  of  a  gentleman 
of  the  clergy,   gf  corresponding  standing.     His  social  stand- 
iiio-  was  very  low  indeed,  independent  of  his  personal 
character.     Macanlay's    highly  colored   picture   of  the 
English    clergy   of    that    time    was    fairly   true    of    the 
Southern   colonies.     ''  A   Levite,"  such  was  the  phrase 
then  in  use,  "  might  be  had  for  his  board  and  ten  pounds 
a  year;  might  not  only  perform  his  own  professional 
functions,  be  the  most  patient  of  butts  and  listeners,  be 
always  ready  in  fine  weather  for  bowls  -and  in  foul  for 
shovel-board,  but  might  also  save  the  expense  of  a  gar- 
dener or  a  groom.     Sometimes  the  reverend  man  nailed 
up  the  apricots  ;  sometimes  he  curried  the  coach  horses. 
He  was  permitted  to  dine  with  the  family,  but  was  ex- 
pected to  content  himself  with  the  plainest  fare.     He 
might  fill  himself  with  the  corned  beef  and  carrots,  but 
when  the  tarts  and   cheesecakes    appeared   he    quitted 
tlie  board  and  stood  aloof  till  he  was  summoned  to  re- 
turn- thanks  for  the  repast,  from  a  great  part  of  which 
he  had  been  excluded.     The  attorney  and  the  apothe- 
cary looked  down  with  disdain  upon  the  clergyman,  and 
one  of  the  lessons  most  earnestly  inculcated  on  every 
girl  of  honoral)le  family  was  to  give  no  encouragement 
to  a  lover  in  Orders."     Queen  Elizabeth  in  her  time,  as 
head  of  tlie  Church,  had  issued  a  special  counnand  that 
no  clergyman  should   [)rcsume  to  es{)()use  a  servant-girl 
without  the   consent  of    her  master   or  mistress.     His 
children  were  l)rought  up  like  the  children  of  the  peas- 

1  Personal  Recollectiuns  of  Gilbert  Scott,  p.  28. 


A   GENERAL  SURVEY.  89 

antry.  His  boys  followed  the  plough,  and  his  daughters 
went  out  to  service.  Parson  Sampson  not  only  tauglit 
George  and  Harry  Esmond  their  letters,  but  acted  as 
overseer  of  their  mother's  negroes.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  Southern  clei-gy  were  adventurers,  broken  men, 
valets  who  had  secured  ordination  from  some  complai- 
sant Bishop  through  the  interest  of  their  masters  for 
whom  they  had  done  some  questionable  favor.  A  con- 
stant complaint  was,  also,  that  they  were  Scotchmen. 
Their  letters  of  Orders  were  often  suspicious,^  and  their 
characters  still  more  so.  Commissaries  Blair  of  Vir- 
ginia and  Bray  of  Maryland  re[)eatedly  reported  to  the 
Bishop  of  London  that  the  meagre  support  of  the  clergy, 
and  the  sliglit  honor  in  which  they  Ave  re  held  prevented 
them  from  making  honorable  marriages  and  led  them 
into  disgraceful  connections,  A  love-letter  still  sur- 
vives written  by  a  Maryland  clergyman  to  a  planter's 
daughter,  in  which  he  argues  at  length  that  inasnuich 
as  his  suit  was  allowable  on  other  grounds,  the  fact  of 
his  being  in  Orders  ought  not  to  be  an  insuperable 
barrier.^  1'liey  provoked  contempt  and  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  treated  like  lackeys.  Governor  Nicholson 
led  out  one  who  was  drunk  in  the  church,  and  caned 
him  soundly  with  his  own  hand  ;  clapped  the  hat  over 
the  eyes  of  another;  and  sent  binets-dou.r  to  his  mis- 
tress l)y  a  third.-"^  He  hectored  and  browbeat  a  whole 
Convocation  and  drove  them  to  sign  an  adulatory  testi- 

1  The  Episcopal  Cliurch  was  suppressed  in  Scotland  ;  Scotch  Orders 
doubted,  and  afterward  declared  null  and  void  by  England.  Abbey  : 
English  Church  and  its  Bishops  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  ii.  p. 
179,  et  seq. 

■^  Lodge:  History  of  English  Colonies  in  America,  p.  •!0. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  GL 


90  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IX   THE   COLONIES. 

moiiial  to  his  own  religious  devoutness.  Commissary 
Blair  writes :  "  The  governor  rules  us  as  if  we  were  a 
Clerical  company  of  galley  slaves,  by  continual  raving 

manners.  r^^^^\  thundering,  cursing  and  swearing,  base, 
abusive.  Billingsgate  language,  to  that  degree  that  it  is 
utterly  incredible."'  ^  One  commissary  was  given  the  lie 
in  his  own  house  by  the  governor ;  ^  and  the  wife  of 
another  was  pulled  out  of  Lady  Berkeley's  pew  by  the 
wrist  because  her  husband  had  offended  its  owner  by 
'•  preaching  a  little  too  lioine  against  adultery."  ^  There 
were  always  present  in  these  colonies  some  clergy  of 
exemplary  life  and  high  character,  but  neither  their 
example  nor  their  reproofs  were  able  to  redeem  their 
brethren.  Most  of  them  were  planters,  and  did  priestly 
duty  now  and  then  to  eke  out  their  income.  They 
hunted,  played  cards,  drank  punch  and  canary,  turned 
marriages,  christenings,  and  funerals  alike  into  revels. 
One  bawled  out  to  his  church-warden  at  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, "•  Here,  George,  this  bread  is  not  fit  for  a  dog." 
One  fought  a  duel  in  his  graveyard.  Another,  a  power- 
ful fellow,  thrashed  his  vestrymen  one  by  one,  and  the 
following  Sunday  preached  before  them  from  the  text, 
"And  I  contended  with  them,  and  cursed  them,  and 
smote  certain  of  them,  and  plucked  off  their  hair.^'* 
Another  dined  every  Sunday  with  his  chief  parishioner, 
and  was  sent  home  in  the  evening  drunk,  tied  in  his 
chaise.^ 

1  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  vol.  Virginia,  pp.  125,  491. 

2  lb.  p.  491. 

3  lb.  p.  27. 

■•  Neh.  xiii.  29. 

5  Of.  Meade:  Old  Churches  and  Families  of  Virginia,  pp.  18, 162,  231, 
250,  275. 


A   GENERAL   SUHVEV.  91 

In  the  Noi'tliern  colonies  both  the  character  and  the 
standing  of  the  clergy  were  very  much  higher.  In  these 
colonies  there  had  never  been  anything  to  attract  un- 
worthy men.  The  duty  was  hard  and  ill  paid,  and 
only  men  who  had  high  motives  undertook  it.  In  the 
South  the  disreputable  priest  might  gain  fortune  as  a 
tobacco-planter.  In  the  North  the  conditions  of  life 
were  harder.  There  also  he  was  surrounded  by  a  people 
whose  religious  life,  at  least  in  the  early  part  of  the 
century,  was  exacting.  There  was  no  establishment  to 
sustain  him.  But,  above  all,  the  Puritan  conception  of 
the  ministerial  office  had  early  made  itself  felt.  While 
tlie  priest  in  Virginia  was  content  to  be  a  lackey,  the 
Puritan  minister  in  Massachusetts  was  a  petty  poten- 
tate, the  chiefest  man  in  the  community,  the  censor  of 
morals,  the  stern  disciplinarian.    In  the  Church  the  office 

was  erenerally  looked  upon  as  a  profession. 
EffectofPuri-    ^  ,     .  ,     /  ..,,,. 

tanism  upon    Outside  it  was  regarded  as  a  spiritual  calling. 

clerical  office,  j^^  England  the  position  and  accomplishments 
of  the  "  superior  clergy  "  were  sufficient  to  keep  for  the 
office  generally  a  certain  respect.  But  the  mass  of  the 
clergy  were  then  held  in  anything  but  honor.  A  debt 
which  the  Church  owes  to  Puritanism  on  both  sides  of 
the  water  is  the  restored  reputation  of  the  ministry. 
The  popular  mind  never  distinguishes  closely  between 
things  which  look  alike.  To  it  a  clergyman  is  a 
clergyman,  whether  Episcopal  or  Presbyterian  hands 
have  been  laid  upon  him.  The  ministry  with  which 
people  were  most  familiar  in  the  colonies  was  irregular 
in  its  commission,  but  held  in  high  honor  by  those 
among  whom  it  was   exercised.     For   this  reason  the 


9-2  THE    ENGLISH   CHUIICH    IX   THE   COLONIES. 

ministry  of  the  Church,  beginning  with  New  Enghxnd 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  extending  all  over  the 
country  in  the  eighteenth,  came  to  share  that  place  in 
public  esteem  which  has  ever  since  been  cheerfully 
accorded  to  the  sacred  office. 

-  In  JNIaryland  and  Virginia  the  Churcli  of  England  was 
established  hy  law.  It  had  privileges  and  imnuinities 
granted  to  no  sect.  ^Marriages  could  only  be  celebrated 
by  its  clergy.  The  glebes  and  perquisites  were  guar- 
anteed to  its  use.  Its  services  and  clergy  were  sup- 
ported by  taxes  to  be  laid  and  collected  by  process  of 
law.  Their  brethren  at  the  North  envied  their  position, 
and  looked  to  the  time  when  they  should  be  sin)ilarly 
blessed,  but  the  event  proved  that  what  was  deemed 
their  strength  was  really  their  weakness. 

In  Virginia  the  right  of  presentation  lay  in  the  royal 
governor,  as  representing  the  Bishop  of  London,  but 
Conflict  with  the  power  of  induction  to  the  benefice  was 
vestries.  ^y\^]^  i\^q  yestry.  Being  once  inducted, 
however,  the  vestry's  power  over  the  incumbent  w^as 
exhausted.  They  could  not  remove  him  fioni  his 
benefice,  and  they  could  not  starve  him  out,  for  his 
income  was  assured  by  law.  From  this  arose  that  con- 
test between  the  clergy  and  the  vestries,  which  finally 
tore  th3  Church  to  pieces.  The  vestries  in  many  in- 
stances refused  to  induct  whom  the  governor  had  nomi- 
nated. There  was  no  power  able  to  issue  a  mandamus. 
The  result  was  that  clergymen  were  hired  by  them  from 
year  to  year,  and  made  to  dance  attendance  upon  their 
pleasure.  The  position  was  an  ignoble  one,  and  had 
attractions  only  for  unworthy  men.     Presently,  as  the 


A   GENERAL   SURVEY.  93 

vestries  came  more  and  more  under  tlie  American  idea, 
and  the  clergy  more  and  more  empliatic  in  their  loyalty 
to  the  English  Church  and  Crown,  the  breach  widened. 
By  the  middle  of  the  century  we  will  find  it  to  be  incur- 
able. Sound  Church  notions  of  the  relation  of  priest 
and  people  were  completely  thrown  back  and  obscured 
by  the  political  situation.  When  the  clergy  were  only 
standing  out  for  the  inherent  rights  of  their  Order,  they 
were  placed  in  a  position  where  tliey  seemed  to  be  the 
champions  of  a  foreign  political  power.  The  union  of 
English  Church  and  State  here,  as  always,  worked  to 
the  Church's  ruin.  The  true  Church  idea  was  almost 
entirely  lost  to  sight  by  hoth  sides.  The  same  law,  for 
example,  which  "  established "'  the  Church  in  South 
Carolina,  provided  for  a  board  of  laymen  who  could 
try  and  remove  any  minister  against  whom  complaint 
should  be  made  by  a  majority  of  the  vestry,  together 
with  nine  aggrieved  parishioners.^  The  laity  of  the 
middle  colonies  were  of  much  the  same  mind,  but  with- 
out the  legal  power  to  make  it  effective ;  but  the  differ- 
ence between  the  two  orders  was,  in  kind,  the  same  as 
in  the  South.  A  meeting  of  the  clergy  of  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  formally  resolved  thenceforward  to 
do  without  vestries  altogether,  but  the  vestries  held 
their  own,  and  have  ever  since  been  an  effective  part  of 
the  Church's  machinery. 

In  New  York  and  ^lassachusctts  the  Church  had  also 
a  leofal  recosruition  at  this  date,  which  seemed  to  place 
it  at  an  advantage.  In  so  far  as  the  colonies  were  under 
tlie   English    law,  after  the   revocation  of  the   oiiginal 

1  Perry:  History,  vol.  i.  p.  ?>7G. 


9i  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

charters,  the  Episcopal  Church  was  that  one  which  the 

law  knew  here.     The  Church,  in  a  certain  sense,  went 

with  the  flag.     But  the  question  of  how  far 
Effect  of  ^        _  ^  ^ 

government  English  law  was  modified  or  suspended  by 
suppor .  ^j^^  ^^^^^  charters  and  by  colonial  legisla- 
tion, was  a  mooted  one.^  Its  manner  of  settlement,  so 
far  as  the  Church  was  concerned,  inclined  to  either  hand 
in  proportion  as  the  population  was  friendly  to  her  or 
otherwise.  Where  it  was  unfriendl}-,  every  claim  of  pre- 
rogative by  her  produced  irritation  and  opj)osition.  In 
New  England  this  was  frequently  tlie  case.  For  many 
years  the  Church  had  not  been  allowed  at  all.  When 
it  came  in  with  the  new  governor  on  the  Rose  frigate,  it 
at  once  attached  to  itself  all  the  obloquy  which  the  new 
regime  created.  Its  royal  backing  saved  it  alive,  but 
guaranteed  for  it  the  ill-will  of  the  community.  Never- 
theless, by  1700  the  "  King's  Chapel  "  had  been  built 
in  Boston,  its  minister  settled,  and  a  considerable  con- 
gregation gathered.  But  it  was  an  exotic  in  a  foreign 
climate,  a  garrison  surrounded  by  a  hostile  people. 

To  the  eastward  of  Massachusetts  there  was  but  a 
single  congregation.  Gorges's  ever  faitliful  settlement 
The  Church  o^^  ^^^6  Kennebec  had,  through  all  the  years, 
in  the  East,  j^gij  steadfastly  to  their  Church  and  Prayer- 
Book.  For  this  they  had  been  beset  and  harried  by  the 
Massachusetts  Puritans  ;  had  been  kept  out  of  the  New 
England  League,  and  left  single-handed  to  defend  them- 
selves against  the  common  savage  enemy  ;  their  com- 
merce had  been  destroyed,  their  minister  stripped  of 
property  and  almost  life,  and  now,  an  old  man,  incapa- 
ble of  duty  and  in  poverty,  he  waited  to  die. 

1  Smith:  History  of  New  York.     London,  1757,  pp.  220-228. 


A   GENERAL   SURVEY.  95 

To  the  westward  there  were  a  few  Church  families  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Housatonic,  and  practically  no  more 
In  the  middle  ^^^^  ^^w  York  was  reached.  In  that  tov/n, 
colonies.  ^yj^i^  j^  population  of  about  five  thousand. 
Trinity  Church  had  been  built  and  endowed  with  a 
farm  in  the  outskirts,  had  a  minister  and  a  claim  to 
support  by  taxation.  Accessions  by  immigration  and 
by  additions  from  the  Dutch  Presbyterians  were  nu- 
merous. The  people  were,  upon  the  whole,  not  ill- 
disposed  toward  the  Church.  The  whole  province  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  divided  into  parishes,  and  provision 
made  for  the  support  of  the  minister;  but  outside  the 
capital  there  were  no  clergy,  and,  with  the  exception  of 
_a  little  group  in  the  eastern  part  of  Long  Island,  no 
Church  people. 

In  Pennsylvania,  Christ  Church  had  been  built  at 
Philadelphia,  and  under  its  faithful  rector,  Evan  Evans, 
was  rapidly  gaining  ground,  both  in  the  city  from  the 
Quakers,  and  from  the  Welsh  in  the  outlying  settlements. 
In  a  word,  at  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  Church  may  be  said  to  have  been  planted  in  all  the 
colonies.  In  some  places,  as  we  will  see,  it  brought 
forth  much  fruit.  In  others  it  was  choked,  and  required 
replanting. 


96  THE   ENGLISH    CHUKCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    "  VENERABLE   SOCIETY." 

The  Cluirch  is  now  lodged  in  the  colonies,  not  as  an 
organization,  Ijnt  in  the  shape  of  isolated  congregations, 
widely  separated,  a  minority  in  the  popnlation,  linked 
to  each  other  only  through  the  Bish.op  of  London,  who 
had  a  shadowy  power  of  superintendency  over  them  all. 

In  the  period  which  lies  between  the  year  1700  and 
tlie  War  of  Independence,  the  history  groups  itself 
about  a  half-dozen  topics.  These  we  will  notice  in 
their  order.  The  first  is  the  work  of  the  "  Society  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts^ 

In   the  closing  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 

Rev.  Dr.  Bray  was  the  successful  rector  of  a  parish  in 

Warwickshire.      He  comes    in   sight  as  the 

Dr.  Bray.  ,  .  •.?       tt^  ... 

first  01  the  "workmg  clergy.  His  spirit  is 
distinctly  modern.  His  methods  strangely  anticipated 
those  of  to-day.  He  was  a  "  parish  priest."  He  made 
himself  familiar  with  the  needs  of  his  flock,  and  was 
fertile  in  devising  plans  for  their  benefit.  Presently,  he 
attracted  the  notice  of  his  superiors,  and  was  promoted. 
In  liis  new  ofiice,  lie  was  oppressed  witli  what  he  saw 
of  the  ignorance  and  general  lack  of  equipment  of  the 
parish  clergy.  Tliey  could  not  feed  their  flocks,  for 
they  themselves  were  starving  for  lack  of  knoAvledge. 
Those  amou""  them  who  were  best  furnished  with  books 


THE    "VENERAULE   .SOCIETY."  97 

had  upon  their  she! ves  only  the  ''Pearl  of  Eloquence, 
some  German  system,  a  few  stitched  sermons,  with  an 
old  Geneva  Bible  and  Concordance."  Bray  became 
their  benefactor.  He.  was  one  of  those  enthusiasts 
whose  spirit  is  contagious.  He  interested  his  Bishop 
and  other  men  and  women  of  wealth  and  liberality,  in 
the  formation  of  a  "  Societ}^  for  the  Promotion  of  Chris- 
tian Knowledge."  Its  first  purpose  was  to  found  parish 
libraries  for  the  benefit  oi■^the  clergy  and  then  of  the 
people.  B}^  his  efforts  that  society  which  now  com- 
mands the  pens  of  university  examiners  and  tutors,  and 
even  of  prime  ministers,  Avas  set  upon  a  strong  founda- 
tion. In  addition  to  its  work  at  home  it  took  up  the 
added  task  to  provide  libraries  for  the  churches  in  the 
colonies.  Before  Bray's  death  he  saw  more  than  forty 
such  furnished  to  America  alone. 

In  1095,  he  was  asked  by  Compton,  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, to  visit  and  report  upon  the  condition  of  the 
Church  in  the  American  Colonies.  Compton's  succes- 
sion to  the  See  of  London  was  the  best  thing  that  had 
yet  happened  for  the  colonial  churches.  His  sense  of 
ofhcial  responsibility  for  them  was  great.  His  prede- 
cessors had  looked  after  their  afTairs  a  little,  when  it 
was  convenient,  but  had  not  regarded  themselves  as 
legally  responsible.  Indeed,  their  shadowy  jurisdiction 
was  only  the  result  of  the  accident  that  the  then  Bishop 
of  London  had  been  a  member  of  the  origfinal  "  Vir- 
ginia  Company."  At  Compton's  instanc3,  the  Bishop 
of  London  was  formally  j)ut  in  charge  of  the  colonies 
by  an  order  in  council.^     Regarding   them   then  as  a 

1  Abbey:  Tbe  English  Cliurcli  and  its  Bisliops  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century,  vol.  i.  p.  82 


98  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IN    THE   COLONIES. 

part  of  his  diocese,  he  sent  Dr.  Bray  to  investigate  their 
situation.  After  an  extended  visit  of  five  years,  he 
returned  and  published  his  "  Memorial  upon  the  State 
Dr  Bray's  ^^  Religion  in  America."  He  reports  '  that 
"Memorial."  in- Soutli  Carolina  the  Church  Avas  thriving, 
but  at  least  three  more  clergy  were  needed.  In  North 
Carolina  there  were  two  Church  settlements,  a  hundred 
miles  apart,  and  no  clergyman  in  either  of  them.  In 
Maryland  the  endowment  was,  as  yet,  very  insufficient, 
but  the  j»eople  had  built  churches  for  themselves.  The 
Pennsylvanians  had  one  Church  of  England  Minister, 
well  esteemed,  and  wished  for  more.  The  Jerseys  had 
as  yet  none,  but  he  thought  there  would  be  reception 
for  six.  New  York  had  one  ;  there  was  room  for  at 
least  two  more.  In  Long  Island  there  were  nine 
churches  (parishes),  but  no  ministers.  In  Rhode  Island 
the  Quaker  neglect  for  outward  teaching  had  caused 
great  irreligion.  There  was  a  church  there,  and  room 
for  at  least  two  ministers.  New  England  was  under 
Independents. 

But  Dr.  Bray  was  not  content  with  merely  making 
his  report.  He  had  left  his  heart  in  America.  He  laid 
the  case  of  the  Church  there  before  everybody  whom  he 
could  reach.  He  printed  pamphlets,  wrote  letters,  con- 
ferred with  the  Bishops,  appealed  to  Parliament,  and 
engaged  the  warm  interest  of  the  Queen.     Through  his 

tireless  exertion  there  was  organized  in  1701 
The  SPG. 

the  first  Missionary  Society  of  the  Protest- 
ant world.  Its  title  was  ''  The  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts."     Its  charter  ran  : 

•  Abbey:  i.  p.  84. 


THE   "VEXEKABLE   SOCIETY."  99 

"  William  the  Third,  King  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, Defender  of  the  Faith,  Greeting: 

"  Whereas  we  are  informed  tliat  in  many  of  our  plan- 
tations and  colonies  beyond  the  sea,  belonging  to  our 
Kingdom  of  England,  the  provision  for  ministers  is 
very  mean,  whereby  there  is  a  great  lack  of  the  admin- 
istration of  the  Word  and  Sacraments,  causing  atheism 
to  abound  for  the  want  of  learned  and  orthodox  minis- 
ters, and  Romish  priests  and  Jesuits  are  encouraged  to 
proselyte,  .  .  .  we  therefore  empower  these,  our  right 
trusty  subjects;"  —  then  follow  a  hundred  of  the  noblest 
names  in  England,  with  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
at  the  head,  constituting  the  society.  Its  popularity 
was  great  from  the  outset.  One  member  gave  a  thou- 
sand pounds  for  the  work,  another  nine  hundred  for 
teaching  the  negroes.  One  gave  to  it  his  estate  in  the 
Barbadoes  to  found  a  college,  and  another  a  present  of 
books  and  maps.  Archbishop  Tenison  left  it  one  thou- 
sand pounds  towards  founding  two  American  bishop- 
rics. The  proprietors  of  Vermont  set  apart  townships 
for  its  use.  Evelyn  enters  in  his  diary  that  he  had 
promised  twenty  pounds  a  year  to  it.^  The  society's 
actions  were  marked  by  good  sense,  good  spirit,  and 
broad-minded  charity.  Its  first  act  was  to  circulate  an 
"Address"  to  all  bishops  and  archdeacons,^  asking  them 
to  choose  out  fit  persons  for  missionaries  to  the  colonies 
and  the  Indians.  The  qualifications  to  be  carefully 
noted   in    the   persons    recommended  were :  their   age, 

1  Caswall:  American  Churcli,  p.  130. 

2  "  A  collection  of  Papers  printed  by  order  of  the  S.  P.  G.,  London: 
printed  by  Joseph  Downing  in  Bartholomew  Close,  near  West  Smith- 
tield,  1712." 


100       THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH   IX   THE  COLONIES. 

whether  married  or  single,  temper,  prudence,  learning, 
zeal,  and  loyalty  to  Church  and  Crown.  The  officials 
are  solemnly  adjured  not  to  recommend  any  but  fit 
men,  and  especially  not  to  use  the  Society  for  the  })ur- 
pose  of  finding  places  for  men  whom  they  themselves 
.   ,     ^.         wish  to  be  rid  of.     "  Standing  Instructions  " 

Instructions  => 

tomissiona-  were  issued  to  the  applicants  for  appoint- 
ment, that  they  shall  not  lodge  at  any  public- 
house  in  London,  but  at  some  bookseller's  or  such 
private  house ;  shall  attend  constantly  the  Standing- 
Committee  of  the  Society ;  that  before  embarking  they 
shall  wait  upon  his  Grace  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury for  his  instructions ;  that  when  embarked  they 
shall  demean  themselves  so  as  to  become  remarkable 
examples  of  piety  and  virtue  to  the  ship's  company  ; 
that  whether  they  be  passengers  or  cliaplains  they  shall 
endeavor  to  prevail  with  the  captain  to  have  morning 
and  evening  prayers,  daily,  with  catechising  on  the 
Lord's  Day ;  that  during  the  passage  they  shall  in- 
struct,  exhort,  admonish,  reprove,  with  seriousness  and 
prudence,  so  as  may  gain  them  reputation  and  author- 
ity ;  that  when  they  ariive  in  the  country  where  they 
are  sent  they  shall  be  frequent  in  private  prayers,  con- 
versant with  the  Holy  Scriptures,  Prayer-Book,  Articles, 
and  Homilies  ;  be  circumspect ;  not  board  or  lodge  in 
public-houses  ;  game  not  at  all ;  converse  not  with  lewd 
and  profane  persons,  save  to  admonish  tliem ;  be  frugal ; 
keep  out  of  debt ;  not  meddle  with  politics  ;  keep  away 
from  quarrels  ;  say  the  service  every  day,  when  practi- 
cable, and  always  Avith  seriousness  and  decency  ;  avoid 
high-flown  sermons  ;  preach  against  such  vices  as  they 


THE   "VENERABLE   SOCIETY."  101 

may  see  to  prevail ;  impress  the  nature  and  need  of 
Sacraments;  distribute  the  Society's  tracts;  visit  their 
people,  — in  a  word,  bear  themselves  like  Christians 
and  gentlemen. 

For  salary  they  were  to  have  fifty  pounds  a  year,  and 
ten  pounds  for  outfit. 

Among  the  many  missionaries  sent  out  by  the  Society, 
there  were,  of  course,  some  who  took  to  colonial  work 
as  a  refuge  from  poverty  or  scandal,^  but,  as  a  rule,  they 
made  an  impression  at  once  by  their  high  cliaracter  and 
high  C'hurchmanship.  On  this  latter  rock  some  of  them 
split,  but  the  general  effect  was  to  distinctly  raise  both 
the  zeal  and  the  tone  of  the  Church  in  America.^ 

Their  first  missionaries  were  Keith,  the  whilom  Phila- 
delphia Quaker,  and  his  friend  Patrick  Gordon.  These 
came  out  in  the  ship  Centurion,  and  on  the 

First  mission-  r,-,   ii 

ariesofthe  voyage  the  ships  chaplani,  John  lalbot,  de- 
^•^•^-  termined  to  join  them.     Within  a  few  weeks 

of  their  landing  Gordon  died  at  Jamaica,  Long  Island. 
Keith  and  Talbot,  under  the  Society's  instructions,  made 
a  tour  of  observation  extending  from  Boston  to  Charles- 
ton, Though  they  were  very  pronounced  Churchmen, 
more  so  than  most  of  the  clergy  at  that  time  on  this  side 
of  the  water,  they  followed  loyally  the  Society's  desire 
that  they  should  adopt  a  conciliating  tone  with  dis- 
senters everywhere.  They  Avere  to  preach  in  their 
meeting-houses  whenever  opportunity  might  offer,  not 
to  offend  their  prejudices  unnecessarily,  and  where 
possible,  win  them  back  to  the  Church.     'J'here  is  every 

1  Anderson:  Enslisli  Church  in  the  Colonies,  vol.  iii.  p.  149. 

2  Abbey:  English  Church  and  Bishops,  vol.  i.  p.  91. 


102       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE  COLONIES. 

evidence  of  a  widely  spread  inclination  on  the  part  of 
dissenters  in  America  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
Conciliating  century  to  return  to  the  Church  of  England  if 
dissenters.  ^}jg  ^y^y  could  be  mr.de  easy  for  them.  It 
showed  itself,  as  we  will  see  later  on  (in  connection  with 
the  story  of  the  Episcopate),  among  Quakers,  Lutherans, 
and  Dutch,  especially.  The  managers  of  the  S.  P.  G, 
were  men  "  having  understanding  of  the  times  what 
things  Israel  ought  to  do."  There  is  good  reason  to 
believe  that  if  the  Church  had  been  here  on  the  ground 
with  a  complete  organization,  the  wise  and  conciliatory 
efforts  of  the  Society's  missionaries  would  have  suc- 
ceeded in  healing  at  least  some  of  those  breaches  in 
Zion,  which  have  grown  wider  as  the  years  have   gone 

by. 

Talbot  writes  from  Philadelphia,  September  1,  1703 : 
''  We  have  gathered  together  several  hundreds  for  the 
Church  of  England,  and,  what  is  more,  to  build  churches 
for  her.  There  are  four  or  five  now  going  forward  in 
this  province  and  the  next.  That  at  Burlington  is 
almost  finished.  Churches  are  going  up  amain  where 
there  were  none  before.  They  are  going  to  build  three 
at  Carolina,  and.  three  more  in  these  lower  counties 
ahout  New  Castle,  beside  those  at  Chester  and  Amboy." 
The  advent  of  the  Society's  missionaries  gave  an  im- 
pulse to  the  Church's  growth  all  along  the  line.  But 
she  lengthened  her  cords  faster  than  she  was  able  to 
Building  strengtlien  her  stakes.  A  considerable  num- 
churches.  |jer  of  the  newly  built  churches  were  never 
occupied  at  all,  or  at  best  for  a  short  while,  by  the  peo- 
ple for  whom  they  had  been  erected.     Clergy  could  not 


-THE  "VEXEKABLE   SOCIETY."  10-^ 

be  had  in  sufficient  numbers  to  man  tliem.    The  mission- 
aries went  upon  their  way  to   the  southward,  and  the 
enthusiasm  lagged.     The  new  cluirches  became  "stables 
for  the  Quakers'  horses  when  they  came  to  meeting  or 
market."  ^      A  circumference    of   enthusiasm   followed 
Keith  and  Talbot  where  they  journeyed,  but  for  the 
most   part   subsided   when   they    had    passed   on.      In 
Philadelphia    and    its    vicinity    hundreds    of    Quakers 
were  baptized  by  them,  and  in  the  southern  counties 
they   were    welcomed   in    the    Independents'    meetino-. 
houses,    where    they   preached,    and    commended    the 
Church  to  all  who  heard  tliem.     After  a  visit  of  two 
years   Keith  returned  to  England,  and  Talbot  settled 
down  as   permanent   incumbent  at   Burlington,   N.  J., 
where  he  spent  a  long  and  honored  life.^     From  this 
time  until  the  War  of  Independence  the  history  of  the 
Church  in  America  is  to  be  looked  for  in  the  records  of 
the  Venerable    Society.     More  and   more  missionaries 
were  sent  out  by  it,  and  it  undertook,  in  part  at  least, 
the   support  of   the   native    ministry  wliich   gradually 
grew  up.     The  letters  of  these  missionaries  to  the  sec- 
retary, written  from  the  seaboard  cities,  the  backwoods 

1  Anderson:  iii.  p.  238. 

2  It  lias  been  positively  asserted  that  Talbot,  when  an  old  man,  upon 
a  visit  to  England,  was  consecrated  to  the  Episcopate  by  the  English 
nonjuring  Bishops.  Anderson,  Hawks,  Wilherforce,  and  CaswaH  all 
say  so,  apparently  all  following  the  same  original  authority,  whatever 
that  may  be.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Hills,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Church  in  Bur- 
lington," disciisses  the  subject  exhaustively,  and  maintains  the  same 
assertion.  In  vol.  i.  of  Bishop  Perry's  "  History  of  the  American  Epis- 
copal Church  "  is  a  Monograph  by  Rev.  Dr.  John  Fulton  in  which  he  re- 
examines the  whole  case,  and  arrives  at  the  conclusion,  which  seems 
without  doubt  to  be  the  truth,  that  Talbot  never  received  such  conse- 
cration ;  and  that  the  tradition  itself  arose  from  confounding  his  name 
with  that  of  another  man. 


104       THE  ENGLISH   CHUP.CH  IN  THE  COLONIES. 

settlements,  the  inland  villages,  the  Indian  encamp, 
ments,  and  preserved  in  the  Society's  archives,  consti- 
tute a  vivid  picture  of  the  Church's  life  for  seventy 
years.i 

1  Bishop  Perry  lias,  with  infinite  pains,  collected  and  piihlished  in  fine 
folio  volumes  the  Society's  documents  relating  to  the  Colonial  Church, 
under  the  title  of  "  Historical  Collections." 


THE   COMMISSARIES  :    MARYLAND.  105 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE   COMMISSARIES:     MARYLAND. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  Venerable  Society  sent 
out  its  first  missionaries,  the  Bishop  of  London  commis- 
sioned Dr.  Bray,  the  promoter  of  the  Society,  to  repre- 
sent him  in  Maryland.  He  was  empowered  to  assume 
the  reins  of  the  Church  in  the  colon}",  to  exercise  disci- 
pline, to  reform  manners,  to  settle  disputes,  to  preserve 
order,  to  bnild  up  the  Church.  His  salary  was  fixed  at 
four  hundred  pounds  a  year,  —  a  liberal  sum  for  the 
times,  —  all  of  which,  together  with  his  own  patrimony, 
he  expended  on  his  work. 

Upon  his  arrival  in  Lord  Baltimore's  former  Roman 
Catholic  province,  he  found  that  the  Church  of  England 
Dr.  Bray  in  contained,  at  least  nominally,  about  eighty 
Maryland.  ^,gj.  qqi^^  of  the  population.  The  other  twenty 
per  cent  embraced  the  insignificant  renniant  of  Roman- 
ists, together  with  Baptists,  Quakers,  Huguenots,  and 
German  Lutherans  from  the  Palatinate.  There  was  a 
larger  proportion  of  people  ecclesiastically  unattached 
than  in  any  other  colony  save  South  Carolina.  The 
decadence  of  Romanism,  the  negations  of  Quakerism, 
and  the  long  lack  of  organization  in  the  Church,  had  all 
conspired  to  nndtiply  this  class.  Still,  the  Church  of 
England  was  the  dominating  religious  influence.  The 
Commissary  at  first  mistook  the  temper  of  the  people. 


106       THE   ENGLISH    CHURCH    IN   THE   COLONIES. 

Fresh  from  the  Establishment  at  home,  he  undertook  to 
introduce  the  same  regime  here.  The  disorders  in  doc- 
trine and  worship  were  evident.  The  wa}^  to  cure  them, 
as  it  seemed  to  him,  was  to  secure  by  force  of  hiw  the 
same  uniformity  in  worship  and  discipline  here  whicli 
the  State  Church  guaranteed  in  England.  He  found  in 
Governor  Nicholson  a  man  who  was  of  the  same  mind, 
ecclesiastically,  with  himself.  He  and  the  Governor 
persuaded  the  Provincial  Assembly,  apparently  without 
difficulty,  to  pass  an  "  Act  of  Uniformity,"  substantially 
Maryland  ^^  same  as  that  which  had  obtained  in  Eng- 
estabiishment.  i^nd  before  the  "  Act  of  Toleration  "  made  it 
tolerable.  It  provided  not  only  that  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  should  be  used  in  all  the  parishes  of  the 
Establishment,  but  also  that  it  was  "  to  be  solemnly  read 
by  all  and  every  minister  or  reader  in  every  church  or 
other  place  of  public  worship  within  this  province."  ^  A 
storm  of  opposition  at  once  arose.  The  dissenters  asked 
indignantly  whether  or  not  they  were  to  be  accounted  as 
Englishmen ;  whether  they  were  to  be  denied  here  in 
America  that  privilege  of  worshipping  after  their  own 
fashion  which  liad  been  allowed  to  their  brethren  in 
England  for  a  generation.  It  was  too  late  to  protest 
against  the  Act  in  the  colony,  but  tlieir  agents  carried 
their  grievances  to  the  Crown,  and,  chiefly  through  the 
influence  of  the  Quakers,  succeeded  in  having  the 
obnoxious  clause  vetoed  in  Privy  Council. 

But  the  attempt  to  pass  it  had  been  a  grave  mistake. 
It  failed,  to  be  sure,  but  it  gave  the  dissenters  cause  to 
distrust  the  Churcirs  spirit.    -She  seemed  to  them  to  be 

1  Hawks:  Contcibutions,  vol.  ii.  p.  98.     Perry:  History,  vol.  i.  p.  143- 


THE   COMMISSARIES  :    MARYLAND.  107 

moved  by  a  temper  of  gratuitous  intolerance.  It  was 
all  the  more  offensive  because  it  was  impotent.  From 
being  only  indifferent  to  her,  they  passed  into  bitter 
enemies.  The  time  came  when  they  could  make  their 
enmity  felt.  But  the  law,  as  it  still  stood,  put  the 
Churchmen  in  possession. ^  Every  minister  presented 
by  the  governor,  ajjpointed,  and  inducted,  received  the 
"  forty  per  poll,"  out  of  whicli  he  was  to  pay  the  clerk 
a  fixed  sum.  Justices  and  magistrates  were  forbidden 
to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony,  which  was  made  the 
peculium  of  the  Churcli  of  England  clerg}^  at  a  fixed  fee 
of  "  five  shillings  sterling  and  no  more."  The  sheriff  of 
the  county  was  bound  to  collect  the  tobacco-tax  for  the 
minister.  The  incumbent  was  made  ex  officio  a  member 
of  the  vestry.  The  members  of  the  vestries  Avere  bound 
to  attend  meetings  under  penalty.  The  care  and  repair 
of  churches  was  provided  for  by  a  special  tax,  not  to 
exceed  ten  j)0unds  of  tobacco  for  any  one  year.  The 
dissenters  were  to  be  allowed  to  conduct  worship  a 
they  saw  fit,  p}'ovided  their  places  of  meeting  were  certi- 
fied 10  and  registered  at  the  county  court. 

Having  secured  the  legal  status  of  the  Church,  the 

Commissary  set  about  investigating  the  condition  of  the 

clergy   and   parishes.      A    Convocation,    atr 

Attempt  ^0  ^^  '■ 

reform  man-  tended  by  fourteen  of  the  clergy  summoned, 
°^'^^'  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  address   them 

with  wisdom  and  earnestness  upon  their  official  conduct. 
A  prolonged  visitation  which  he  undertook  gave  him  the 
chance  to  see  their  manner  of  life.  He  found  among 
them  some  devout  and  earnest  men,  but  a  still   laro-er 

1  Perry:  History,  vol.  i.  p.  143. 


108       THE   ENGLISH  CHURCH    IN   THE   COLONIES, 

number  who  had  fallen  into  the  easy  manners  of  the 
time  and  place,  whose  professional  duties  sat  lightly 
upon  them,  and  some  whose  lives  were  a  scandal,  and 
whose  duties  were  utterly  neglected.  He  began  by 
proceeding  against  one  or  two  flagrant  offenders  against 
morals  and  decency.  He  found  the  task  of  reform  far 
more  difficult  than  he  had  anticipated.  He  had  l)ut 
small  real  power  over  the  clergy.  The  Church  being 
"established,"  the  Missionary  Society  in  England  as- 
sumed that  it  was  able  to  look  after  itself,  and  declined 
to  take  any  of  the  clergy  upon  its  pay-rolls.  That 
sharpest  kind  of  discipline,  cutting  off  the  offender's 
salary,  was  therefore  not  available.  Beside  that,  the 
clergy  held  their  incumbency  by  the  appointment  of  the 
Governor,  and  lie  was  always  jealous  of  any  interference 
with  his  prerogatives.  Moreover,  the  easy-going  habits 
of  the  clergy  suited  the  people  very  well.  They  were 
at  heart  somewhat  afraid  of  the  new  type  of  minister 
which  Dr.  Bray  held  up  as  the  model.i  Believing  that 
he  could  better  serve  the  interest  of  his  province  from 
London  than  by  remaining  in  it,  he  went  liome,  and 
never  again  returned.  For  a  while  he  continued  to 
hold  his  oflfice,  but  soon  resigned  it,  joining  in  the  re- 
quest of  the  clergy  of  the  colony,  that  another  Commis- 
sary might  be  sent  out ;  but  until  his  death  in  1730  he 
never  flagged  in  his  zeal.  He  pressed  upon  the  authori- 
ties, without  ceasing,  the  necessity  of  a  resident  bishop. 
He  kept  the  Church  at  home  informed  concerning  Mary- 
land, collected  money  for  it,  and  secured  recruits  for  its 
ministry. 

1  Hawks  :  Ecclesiastical  Contributions,  New  York,  lS3!t,  vol-  ii.  p.  213. 


THE   COMMISSARIES  :    MARYLAND.  109 

But  in  the  colony  the  inevitahle  conflict  between  the 
clergy  and  the  people  began  to  develop  itself.     The 
Theirre  ress-  I'ssuscitation  of  Chiivch  life  brought  it  out. 
ibie  conflict.     While  the  clergy  were  apathetic,  especially 
while  they  refrained  from  magnifying  their  office,  it  lay 
latent.     Ikit  the  toning  up  of  the  priestly  standard,  and 
above  all  tlie  emphasis  put  upon  the  legal  establishment, 
brought  out  to  view  the  inherent  conflict  of  intei'est. 
The  history  of  the  Church  here,  as  in  Virginia,  is  simply 
the  story  of  the  long  controversy  between  the  clergy, 
and  the  people  represented  by  the  legislature.     Some- 
times the  Governor  took  one  side  and  sometimes  the 
other,  and  sometimes  the   contest  was   triangular.     In 
this  situation  healthy  Church  life  was  impossible.     Dis- 
cipline could  not  be   maintained.      The    confusion   of 
rights  and  powers  was  hopeless.     "  Thus  the  proprietor 
selected  a  clergyman  in  England  ;  the  Bishop  of  London 
gave  him  a  license ;  the  Governor  inducted  liim  ;   if  he 
did  wrong  the    Commissary  tried   liim   (if  there  hap- 
pened to  be  a  Commissary)  ;  and,  when  convicted,  no 
power  punished  him  ;  for,  after  induction,  even  the  pro- 
prietor could  not  remove  him,  and  the  Bishop  of  London 
could  neither  give  nor  take  away  the  meanest  living  in 
the  province."  ^     Nor  were  the  laws  any  more  able  to 
protect  good  clergy  in  their  rights  than  to  punish  bad 
ones  for  their  faults.     When  a  new  Commissary,  Mr. 
Henderson,  landed  in  1730,  he   barely  escaped   being 
mobbed.2     ^  chivalric  layman  struck  him  in  the  face, 
and  the  blow  was  meekly  borne ;  he  struck  him  a  second 
time,  and  received  such  a  drubbing  from  the  reverend 

'  Hawks:  Ecclesiastical  Coiitiibutions,  vul.  ii.  p.  190. 
2  lb.:  vol.  ii.  p.  204. 


110       THE   EN(HJS1I    CIIUIICII   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

mairs  hands  as  taught  him  never  to  do  the  like  again. ^ 
Another  clergyman  took  to  task  a  layman  who  had 
slandered  the  cloth  generally,  and  for  doing  so  was 
challenged  to  fight  a  duel.  When  he  declined  he  was 
set  upon  by  the  layman  and  beaten  within  an  inch  of 
his  Hie?  The  breach  between  clergy  and  people  grew 
wider  yearly.  The  Romanists  and  Presbyterians  looked 
on  with  unconcealed  glee.  The  Church's  extremity 
was  their  opportunity,  which  they  did  not  fail  to  em- 
brace. The  Churchmen  saw  that  the  only  hope  of 
salvation  for  the  distracted  Church  lay  in  securing  a 
resident  bishop  who  could  assume  the  reins,  and  bring 
order  out  of  the  confusion.  They  represented  the  case 
so  strongly  to  the  authorities  of  the  mother  Church, 
that  for  the  first  time,  after  a  century  of  effort,  consent 
was  secured.  Gibson,  Bishop  of  London,  asked  the 
clergy  to  select  a  fit  man,  send  him  to  England,  and 
he  would  consecrate  him  his  suffragan  for  Maryland.^ 
Whether  the  Bishop  had  secured  the  royal  warrant  for 
his  proposed  action  is  somewhat  doubtful.  But  in  any 
case  it  was  not  put  to  the  test.  For  when  the  Maryland 
clergy  chose  Colebatch,  one  of  their  number,  in  obedi- 
ence to  his  mandate,  the  Colonial  Legislature  issued  a 
writ  7ie  exeat  and  forbade  him  to  leave  the  province. 
The  local  legislature  could  not  disestablish  the 
Church,  but,  by  a  series  of  sinister  acts,  they 

Legislation  -r-i       i  t  t  i  i 

hostile  to  the    made  the  Establishment  worse  tlian  useless. 
Church.  Little  by  little  the  Church  ceased  to    lean 

upon  it,  but  unfortunately  was  not  able  to  disentangle 
itself  so  as   to  stand  upon  a  purely  religious  footing. 

1  Hawks:  vol.  ii.  p.  205.  ^  lb.  p.  20<).  »  ib.  p.  190. 


thp:  commis.saiup:s  :  Maryland.  Ill 

Here  again,  as  everywliere,  tliey  who  took  the  sword 
perished  hy  the  sword.  "  Had  affairs,"  says  Dr. 
Hawks,  "■  been  permitted  to  proceed  to  their  natural 
termination  without  that  interruption  caused  by  the 
American  Revolution,  the  time  would  have  come  when 
the  singular  spectacle  would  have  been  seen  of  the 
extinction  of  a  church  established  by  law,  while  no 
man  could  have  found  in  the  legislation  of  the  country 
a  statute  depriving  it  of  its  character  as  an  establish- 
ment. The  law  that  gave  it  preference  would  have 
still  stood  unrepealed  among  the  early  acts  of  the 
province  ;  while  the  liistory  of  its  downfall  might  be 
traced  in  the  side  blows  of  an  indirect  legislation.'"  ^ 
Under  the  circumstances  Romanism  took  a  fresh  start ; 
the  Presbyterians  flocked  in  from  Pennsylvania  and 
Delaware,  and  from  Ulster  direct ;  and  the  Church  of 
England  gradually  but  surely  lost  ground  and  lost 
character.  At  the  close  of  the  period  before  us,  while 
devout  and  godly  men  like  Bray,  Henderson,  Boucher, 
and  many  others  had  given  themselves  to  her  service, 
still  the  Church  had  fallen  far  behind  in  the  march  of 
population  ;  had  many  unworthy  men  serving  at  her 
altars  ;  had  gained  the  enduring  hostility  of  dissenters  ; 
lost  the  love  of  her  own  children,  and  waited  for  the 
political  catastrophe  out  of  whose  ruins  slie  was  to 
emerge  to  a  new  and  better  life. 

»  Hawks:  vol.  ii.  p.  247. 


112       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH  IN   THE   COLONIES. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THE    COMMISSAEIEvS  :     VIRGINIA. 

During  all  the  time  that  Dr.  Bray  was  the  Bishop  of 
London's   representative  for  Maryland,  Dr.  Blair  held 
The  Vir  inia    *^^®  ^^^^^®  ^^^^  "^  Virginia.     His  was  by  far 
Commissary,    the  largest  and  most  important  service  of  all 
the  Commissaries.     Beginning  the  duties  of  his  office 
in  1685,  he  continued  in  it  fifty-three  years.     He  was 
a   Scotchman,    in    Scotch   orders,    and   with   a    Scotch 
temper;    shrewd,  far-sighted,  cautious,   and   masterful. 
His  Orders  and  his  policy  were  more  than  once  called 
in  question,  but  they  were  both  more   than  vindicated 
in   the    issue.      When   he    first   surveyed   his  field   he 
found  a  population  loyal  to    the   Church  and  Crown. 
Virginia  boasted  herself  as  the  "  ever-faithful  colony." 
Her  people  were  pleased  to  say  that  "  Charles  II  was 
King   in    Virginia   before  he  was  in    England."     The 
Puritan  revolution  which  broke  over  the  Church  both 
at   home   and  in  the  colonies  left  this  one  practically 
untouched.     Her   people  lived  on  serenely,  preserving 
their  old  fashions  of   life  and  worship,  without  much 
thought  of  the  saints  or  their  Commonwealth.     They 
still  called  themselves  the   servants   of  the  King,  and 
when  the  Stuart  line  ended  they  transferred  their  loy- 
alty to  Vf  illiam  and  INIary.     Neither  nonjuror  nor  dis- 
senter gained  influence  among  them.     Dr.  Blair,  upon 


THE  COMMISSARIES  :    VIRGINIA.  113 

his  arrival,  found  the  most  unmixed  Episcopal  com- 
munity that  has  ever  existed  on  this  Continent.  He 
found  a  considerable  number  of  clergy  still  surviving 
whose  standard  of  life  and  work  was  modelled  upon 
that  of  the  saintly  Hunt  and  the  apostolic  Whittaker. 
But  he  found  a  still  larger  number  who  had  fallen  away 
from  the  heroic  type  of  the  early  days,  and  had  con- 
formed themselves  to  the  lower  manner  of  life  which 
had  then  fairly  set  in.  The  lack  of  education,  among 
clergy  and  people  both,  struck  the  Commissary  with  a 
special  horror.  To  correct  this,  he  set  about  a  plan 
which  had  been  intermittently  wrought  upon 

William  and  -^  6  r 

Mary  Col-  almost  from  the  first  settlement  of  the  col- 
ony. That  was  to  establish  and  endow  an 
institution  of  learning,  Avhich  should  be,  first  of  all,  a 
seminar}^  for  educating  a  ministry,  and,  in  addition, 
a  college,  a  school  for  the  youth  of  the  colonists,  and  a 
place  where  the  children  of  the  native  Indians  could  be 
educated  in  civilization  and  Christianity.  "  To  furnish 
a  seminary  of  Ministers  of  the  Gospel,  educate  youth 
in  good  manners,  and  propagate  truth  among  the 
Indians  in  these  parts,"  was  the  way  the  charter  stated 
it.  The  establishment  of  William  and  Mary  College  is 
due  chiefly  to  the  tireless,  patient,  arduous  labor  of 
Dr.  Blair,  its  first  president.  His  expectation  that  the 
Church  people  would  forward  his  plans  Avith  enthu- 
siasm for  so  desirable  a  purpose  was  bitterly  disap- 
pointed. He  found  them  for  the  most  part  apathetic, 
and  often  hostile.  Nowhere  in  the  colonies  were  social 
distinctions  so  sharply  drawn  and  so  long-lived  as  in 
Virginia.     The  rich  and  cultured  had  already  begun  to 


114       THE   ENGLISH   CIIUKCII   IX   THE   COLONIES. 

form  a   caste,  and   to    draw   away    from    the  .common 

people.     The   sympathies    of   the    clergy  were    largely 

with  the  former.     In  some  cases  they  were  their  friends 

.^.     ,     and    relatives ;    in  still  more,   their   humble 

Opposition  to 

the  college,      retainers.      The    rich    planters    would    have 
none  of   the    new  college.     They  did  not  need  it  for 
themselves,    and   did    not    want    it   for   others.     They 
sent  their  own  sons  home  to  be    trained,  like  Madam 
Esmond's    boys,    at   English    schools   and   universities, 
and  to  learn  the  manners  suited  to  their  rank  in  life. 
If  the  sons  of  the  butcher,  the  baker,  and  the  candle- 
stick-maker should  get  a  smattering  of  polite  learning, 
in  a  cheap  way,  out  in  the  backwoods,  the  effect  would 
only  be  to  induce  them  to  forget  their  place,  and  the 
proper  distinctions  among  persons  would  be  lost  sight  of. 
The  general  sentiment  of  the  clergy  corresponded.   They 
were  not  conscious  of  special  defect  in  themselves  in 
point  of  learning,  and  could  not  see  why  the  present  con- 
dition of  things  should  not  continue.    Quieta  nan  movere! 
The   official   opinion  in  England  was  the  same.     It 
looked  upon  the  colony  as  a  ''  plantation,"  not  as  the 
beginning  of  a  State.     When  the  Attorney-General  was 
asked  to  draw  up  a  charter  for  the  projected  college,  he 
declined  to  have  anything  to  do  with  such  a  piece  of 
folly.     When    the   Commissary  pressed  the   duty  upon 
him,  and  urged  that  the  colonists  also  had  souls  which 
demanded  care,  he  broke  out  with,  '^  Danui  their  souls  I 
let  them  grow  tobacco  !  "     Dr.  Blair  persisted,  however, 
in   spite    of   clerical    apathy,  lay  hostility,  and  official 
reluctance.     He  opened  the  subscription  Avitli  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  pounds  from  his  own  meagre  salary.     He 


THE   COMMISSARIES:    VIRGINIA.  115 

secured  twenty-five  hundred  pounds  from  the  mer- 
chants of  London, — the  class  of  Englishmen  who  were 
always  best  informed  concerning  American  affairs. 
Through  the  influence  of  Governor  Nicholson  a  grant 
of  twenty  thousand  acres  of  land  was  secured  for  an 
endowment.  But  when  Sir  Edmund  Andros  came  into 
authority,  every  conceivable  obstacle  was  placed  in 
the  Commissary's  way.  Not  only  was  he  personally 
slighted,  but  the  power  of  his  principal  called  in 
question.  "  Such  of  the  clergy  as  are  most  refractory 
against  [the  Bishop  of  London's]  authority  are  upon 
that  account  received  into  favor.  It  is  a  common 
maxim  among  [the  Governor's]  friends  that  we  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  Bishop  of  London,  nor  no 
Church  power."  i  The  Governor  gave  nothing  himself, 
and  dissuaded  his  friends,  not  only  from  subscribing, 
but  from  paying  wliat  they  ]iad  already  subscribed.^ 
Squatters  were  allowed  to  sit  down  upon  the  College 
grant,  and  the  rightful  owners  were  powerless  either  to 
have  them  put  off  or  to  have  the  land  surveyed.-^ 

The  idea  was  diligently  promoted  that  the  setting  up 
of  the  college  meant  the  setting  up  of  a  new  tax-rate 
for  its  maintenance.  Many  of  the  clergy  were  of  the 
sort  who  were  both  unable  and  unwilling  to  further  the 
really  noble  ends  which  the  Commissary  had  in  view ; 
nor  were  his  manners  or  methods  always  the  best  fitted 
to  commend  them.  "  Your  clergy  in  these  parts,"  writes 
an  intelligent  visitor  to  the  Bishop  of  Lichfield,  tlie 
King's  almoner,  "  are  of  a  very  ill  example.     No  disci- 

1  Perry:   Historical  Collections,  vol.  Va.  p.  4. 

2  lb.  p.  18. 
8  lb.  p.  20. 


116       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

pline  or  canons  of  tlie  Church  are  observed.  They  are 
for  the  most  part  Scotchmen,  people  indeed  so  basely 
educated,  and  so  little  acquainted  with  the  excellency 
of  their  charge  and  duty,  that  their  lives  and  conversa- 
tions are  more  fitted  to  make  heathens  than  Christians."  ^ 
He  adds  that  what  the  people  need  above  all  things  is  a 
bishop  ;  that  if  a  right  reverend  father,  of  the  stamp 
of  Governor  Nicholson  of  Maryland,  should  come,  it 
''  would  make  hell  tremble ; "  that  the  people  are 
much  affronted  because  the  Bishop  of  London  has  sent 
one  Dr.  Blair,  a  Scotchman,  to  represent  him,  whereas 
there  might  surely  have  been  found  an  English  clergy- 
man to  fill  that  office ;  and  that  Dr.  Blair  and  the  Gov- 
ernor were  at  loggerheads  about  the  matter  of  the  new 
college.  But  Dr.  Blair  persisted,  and  in  1700  building 
was  begun  at  Williamsburg,  from  plans  contributed  by 
Sir  Christopher  Wren.  Once  the  college  was  really  in 
existence,  and  was  found  to  be  an  institution  in  which 
the  people  might  take  pride,  they  turned  toward  it  with 
much  affection.     It  became  at  once,  and  con- 

The  college  r   •    a 

and  the  tinned  for  some  time  to  be,  a  centre  of  niiiu- 

^^'^'^-  ence  for  the  Church.     It  was  influential  in 

raising  the  tone  of  both  the  clergy  and  the  laity.  It 
secured  a  better  educated  ministry.  For  a  while  it  had 
some  success  in  its  plans  for  training  the  Indian  youth. 
Seventy  are  reported  as  liaving  been  at  one  time  under 
its  teaching. 

But'  the  elevation  of  the  ministerial  profession,  ef- 
fected largely  through  the  Commissary's  educational 
and    disciplinary  measures,  l)rought   out   here,   as    the 

1  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  vol.  Va.  p.  30. 


THE   COMMISSARIES  :    VIKUINIA.  117 

same  causes  did  in  ■Nlarylaiul,  tlie  latent  conflict  between 
the  Englisli  Church  and  the  American  people.  The 
clergy  represented  a  foreign  authority,  of  which  the  still 
loj-al  Virginians  had  already  begun  to  feel  jealous.  As 
the  jealousy  deepened,  the  people  and  clergy  began  to 
grow  apart.  When  Dr.  Blair  died  the  people  declared 
they  would  never  receive  his  successor.  Discipline  de- 
Decline  of  clined,  and  the  clergy  became  at  the  same 
discipline.  ^jj^-^g  looser  in  their  living,  and  more  strenu- 
ous in  insisting  upon  the  right  of  support  which  was 
theirs  bj  virtue  of  the  Establishment.  For  many  years 
the  dreary  story  drags  on,  —  the  vestries  trying  to  re- 
duce parish  tax-rates  by  refusing  to  induct  ministers 
into  their  livings,  the  clergy  growing  sharper  in  seizing 
their  legal  perquisites,  and  the  honest  priests  and  godly 
people  grieving  more  and  more  at  the  deplorable  state 
into  which  things  had  fallen.  This  last  class  never 
ceased  their  efforts  to  bring  about  better  things.  They 
addressed  the  Governor,  represented  the  facts  to  the 
Attempt  at  Bishop  of  London,  i)etitioned  the  Assembly, 
reform.  j^^^^  ^ti  li^lg  purposc.     One  of  their  best  di- 

gested plans  for  improvement  gives  a  strange  picture  of 
the  Church  life  of  the  time.  It  is  a  "  Proposition  "  sul> 
mitted  to  the  Assembly  in  1724.  It  ^  sets  forth  "the 
bad  constitution  of  this  country,''  especially  in  the  fol- 
lowing particulars  :  — 

(1)  Many  parishes  are  so  small  that  they  cannot 
defray  tlie  minister's  maintenance. 

(2)  Those  parishes  that  are  able  are  tempted  to  keep 
no  minister,  for,  being  without  him,  they  keep  so  much 
of  the  parish  levy  in  their  own  pockets. 

1  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  Virginia,  p.  3'M. 


118       THE   ENGLISH    CHUIICH    IN   THE   COLONIES. 

(3)  The  livings  of  this  country,  "  by  reason  of  their 
meanness,  encourage  only  the  lowest  sized  divines  to 
adventure  among  us,  and  by  their  equality  of  salary 
leave  the  diligent  to  fare  equally  with  the  negligent 
and  blockish." 

(4)  The  precarious  tenure  by  which  they  hold  their 
living,  being  liable  to  be  ejected  by  the  vestry  without 
any  cause  assigned,  either  keeps  the  better  sort  of  min- 
isters away,  or  compels  them  soon  to  leave. 

(5)  The  want  of  ])lantations  and  mansion-houses, 
and  the  extreme  difficulty  of  finding  boarding  places, 
specially  for  married  clergy. 

(6)  The  abuses  put  upon  them  by  the  sheriff  and  tax 
collectors,  who  either  pay  their  salaries  in  bad  tobacco, 
or  delay  paying  it  till  there  is  no  market  or  freight  for  it. 

(7)  The  want  of  some  effective  mode  of  discipline, 
which  will  be  able  to  deal  with  the  scandalous  ministers. 

To  cure  these  evils,  it  proposes  : 

To  consolidate  two  or  three  small  livings  into  one 
decent  one  ;  that  whenever  a  new  settlement  of  a 
hundred  tithables  springs  up  within  seven  miles  of  a 
church,  the  vestry  must  build  a  chapel  in  it,  to  Avhich 
chapel  the  incumbent  must  give  a  jjortion  of  his  time  ; 
that  the  vestry  be  comjjelled  to  pay  the  amount  of  the 
minister's  salary  into  the  church  fund,  whether  they 
''  induct  "  him  or  not ;  to  change  the  amount  of  salary 
from  a  fixed  sum  of  sixteen  thousand  pounds  ol 
tobacco,  to  forty  pounds  per  poll,  so  that  the  salary 
will  vary  with  the  population,  and,  consequently,  with 
the  importance  of  the  parish ;  that  the  glebe  shall 
alwajs   contain   ^  enough   land  to  employ   five  or  six 


I'OHICK   CHURCH.    VIUGIMA 


THE   COMMISSARIES  :   VIRGINIA.  119 

Iiands,  have  on  it  a  house  with  a  brick  chimney  and 
glass  windows,  a  shingled  roof,  have  at  least  one  clear 
story  ten  foot  pitch  with  two  rooms  and  a  closet  and 
kitchen  ;  "  that  the  glebe  be  stocked  by  the  parish  with 
four  or  five  negroes  under  an  overseer,  and  seven  or 
eiffht  milch  cows  ;  that  the  incumbent  shall  have  the 
right  to  appoint  the  tax  collector  ;  that  every  minister 
who  brings  a  license  to  the  colony  shall  be  examined 
by  the  Commissary  and  "  certain  of  the  learnedest  min- 
isters;" shall  in  their  presence  "display  his  talents  by  a 
set  discourse  against  Popery,  Quakerism,  or  any  other 
prevailing  heresy  ;  "  that  any  minister  who  shall  be 
found  guilty  of  fornication,  adultery,  blasphemy,  ridi- 
culing the  Holy  Scriptures,  or  practising  against  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  shall  be  suspended  for  three  years ; 
that  for  carsing,  swearing,  drunkenness,  or  fighting 
(except  in  self-defence),  he  shall  be  suspended  for  one 
year.;  that  because  drunkenness  is  one  of  the  most 
common  crimes,  and,  at  the  same  time,  one  of  the 
hardest  to  be  proved,  the  following  shall  be  taken  as 
sufficient  proof  of  the  offence  ;  "  sitting  an  hour  or 
longer  in  a  company  where  they  are  a-drinking  of 
healths,  and  taking  his  cups  as  they  come  round  ;  strik- 
ing, challenging,  threatening  to  fight,  or  laying  aside 
his  garments  for  that  purpose ;  staggering,  reeling, 
vomiting,  impertinent  or  obscene  talking,  —  the  proof 
of  these  to  proceed  until  the  judges  are  satisfied  that 
the  minister's  behavior  was  unbecoming  or  failing  of 
the  gravity  of  a  minister;  provided,  that  inasmuch  as 
many  of  the  signs  be  fallible  as  proofs  of  drunkenness 
(for  vomiting  may  happen  to  a  sober  person  from  weak- 


120       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

ness  of  stomach,  and  reeling  from  a  sudden  disease 
causing  giddiness  of  the  head),  two  or  three  credible 
witnesses  who  were  in  the  company  (and  not  drunk 
themselves)  shall  declare  upon  oath  that  in  their  opin- 
ion drunkenness  was  the  cause  of  these  signs  ; "  that  to 
each  several  article  of  this  proposition  "  the  lawyers 
shall  contrive  such  good  binding  clauses  and  penalties 
that  the  law  will  execute  itself." 

The  heroic  remedies  proposed  show  how  deep-seated 

and   diffused   the    malady  was.     But   it  must   not   be 

supposed  that  the   Church  Avas  dead   or  its 

Devoted  men        ,  ^,  ^    ,  r^     ■^^  i  ii 

in  the  clergy    all     scandalous.      Godly    and    weil- 

Church.  learned   men   were   serving   her   altars,   and 

from  time  to  time  new  churches  were  being  organized 
by  the  noble  laymen  of  which  Virginia  was  fruitful 
even  during  this  period.  "  King  Carter  "  built  a  church 
at  his  own  expense  in  the  Northern  Neck.^  A  new 
church  was  built  at  Glocester,  with  pulpit  "  hung  with 
costly  lace  and  damask,  and  a  fine  picture  of  the  Last 
Judo-ment"  was  set  over  the  altar  before  wliich  the  Wash- 
ingtons  worshipped.^  A  dozen  others  in  the  colony  date 
from  the  same  period.  AVashington,  Patrick  Henry, 
Harry  Lee,  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  and  others 
whose  names  afterward  rang  through  two  continents, 
were  alive,  working,  scheming,  planning,  praying  in 
the  Church.  A  Welsh  colony  of  C-hurch  of  England 
people  moved  into  Virginia  and  Southern  Pennsylvania, 
and  for  a  while  maintained  a  vigorous  and  flourishing 
life,  but  were  ultimately  swept  into  the   rising  stream 

1  Rev.  Philip  Slaughter  in  Perry's  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  «28. 

2  lb.  p.  627. 


THE   COMMISSARIES  :   VIRGINIA.  121 

of  Americanism,  caught  in  tlie  current  of  the  revival- 
ism which  was  then  sweeping  southward  like  a  torrent, 
and,  for  the  most  part,  carried  away  from  the  Church. 

A  root  of  bitterness   had  been  planted  from  which 
sprung   up    a   pestilent   fruit.      The    next    generation 
Growing         found  but  the  ruins  of  their  fathers'  altars, 
spirit  of         their  church  walls  crumbled  and  overgrown. 
An  irreconcilable  conflict  of  interests  forced 
the  clergy  and  people  apart,  and  brouglit  disaster  upon 
the  Church.     The  evil  was   inherent  in  the  situation. 
The  real  question  at  issue  was  but  dimly  discerned  by 
either  party  to  it.    It  was  the  foredoomed  struggle  which 
became  inevitable  when  the  colonies  were  planted,  and, 
sooner  or  later,  was  fought  out  in  each  one  of  them. 
The    peculiar  shape  it  assumed  varied  in   the   several 
commonwealths,  but  was  in  essence  the  same  in  all.     In 
Virginia  it  was  settled  in  its  ecclesiastical  form  before 
it  was  opened  in  its  civil  shape.     It  came  to  an  issue  in 
The  "  Par-       ^he  celebrated  "  Parsons'  Cause."  ^    The  situa- 
sons-  Cause."  tion  was  as  follows  :    The  Church  of  England 
was  established  by  law  and  supported  by  revenue  from 
taxation.    The  political  divisions  known  in  the  Northern 
colonies  as  townships  were  here  parishes.     The  vestry 
was  elected  by  the  legally  qualified  voters.     It  was  in 
their  hands  to  "induct"  to  his  living  the  minister  nomi- 
nated by  the  Governor  representing  the  Bishop  of  Loii- 
don.     Being  once  inducted,  a  salary  of  sixteen  thousand 
pounds  of  tobacco  was  due  him  by  law,  to  be  collected 

1  For  the  best  account  of  tliis  important  event  see  Prof.  Moses  Coit 
Tyler:   Life  of  Patrick  Henry,  p.  32,  et  seq. 
^  Anderson:  vol.  iii.  p.  136. 
1  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  Va.  4iK),  et  seq. 


122       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IN   THE   COLONIES. 

by  the  slieriff.  Tobacco  was  a  commodity  wbicli  fluctu- 
ated in  value  from  year  to  year.  In  the  seasons  when 
it  was  low  in  the  market,  tlie  parson  pocketed  his  loss 
and  waited  to  recoup  himself  next  year,  when  it  might 
be  high.  The  quantity  of  sixteen  thousand  pounds  Avas 
nominated  in  the  bond.  In  1763,  a  series  of  years  in 
which  the  tobacco  had  been  very  low  was  followed  by  a 
time  of  very  high  prices.  The  parson  could  put  liis 
tobacco  on  the  market  and  make  good  what  he  had  lost 
in  the  preceding  years.  But  the  laity,were  reluctant  to 
hand  over  the  weed.  By  withholding  it  they  could  till 
their  own  purses,  and  at  the  same  time  squeeze  out  the 
clergy  against  whom  their  grudge  had  steadily  risen. 
The  only  thing  to  hinder  was  the  law.  This  they 
found  a  way  to  evade,  or  rather  violate.  The  Assem- 
bly passed  an  act  to  pay  the  parsons'  salaries  in  A^'ir- 
ginia  currency,  at  the  rate  of  twopence  halfpenny  per 
pound  for  the  tobacco.  In  effect,  it  confiscated  their 
tobacco  and  compelled  them  to  take  for  it  a  price  less 
than  one-fourth  of  that  which  it  would  have  brought  in 
the  market.  But  the  Assembl}'  knew  that  they  were 
acting  ultra  vires  in  passing  such  a  law.  It  was  null 
and  void,  without  the  indorsement  of  the  Crown.  This, 
they  knew,  it  never  would  receive.  They  therefore 
made  it  operative  for  a  period  of  ten  months  from  the 
time  it  was  enacted.  This,  as  they  estimated,  would 
cover  the  time  required  to  take  an  appeal  across  the 
water  and  return,  and  in  the  mean  while,  for  that  year, 
at  least,  their  purpose  would  have  been  gained.  The 
clergy  asked  to  be  heard  in  opposition  to  the  act,  and 
were  refused.     They  therefore  drew  together  for  consul- 


THE   COMMISSARIES  :   VIRGINIA.  123 

tation  as  to  tlie  ruin  which  tlireatened  them.  They 
chose  a  committee  of  their  number  who  proceeded  to 
England  to  protest  before  the  Privy  Councih  The 
Crown  hiwyers  assured  them  that  tlie  act  was  of  no 
legal  force  whatever,  and  advised  them  to  go  back  and 
sue  for  their  salaries.  They  followed  the  advice,  and 
the  Rev.  Thomas  W^arrington,  of  Elizabeth  City,  made 
up  his  case  as  a  test.  His  plea  was  that  the  act  w^as 
inequitable,  in  that  it,  without  w^arning  and  ^^'ithout 
redress,  cut  down  the  salaries  from  four  hundred 
pounds  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  ;  tliat-it  was  a 
breach  of  contract  which  was  perilous  to  every  citizen  ; 
that  the  act  was  null  and  void  wanting  the  royal 
indorsement.  The  case  for  the  vestry,  against  whom 
his  suit  was  brought,  ^^'as  so  bad  that  no  lawyer  with  a 
reputation  would  touch  it.  When  the  case  was  immi- 
nent, there  chanced  to  be  a  lawyer  without  either  legal 
reputation  or  social  standing,  himself  a  Churchman, 
Patrick  who  w^as  willing  to  undertake  it.     His  name 

Henry.  ^y^s  Patrick  Henry.     His   argument   before 

the  jury  raised  him  to  celebrity  at  a  bound,  showed  his 
wonderful  sagacity,  and  brought  into  dazzling  vividness 
the  Church's  position  in  America.  He  brushed  away 
all  question  of  either  law  or  technical  equity.  He 
declared  that  England  had  no  essential  right  to  tax  this 
country  for  any  purpose ;  that  the  colonies  had  both  the 
right  and  the  ability  to  regulate  their  own  affairs, 
religious  as  well  as  civil ;  that  the  only  purpose  of 
religion  which  law  can  recognize  is  its  function  of 
making  good  citizens  ;  that  the  community  wherein 
this  function  is  exercised    must  regulate  it ;   that  the 


124       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

clergy  by  appealing  to  a  foreign  state  had  proven 
themselves  to  be  at  once  bad  citizens  and  unworthy 
ministers.  These  contentions  he  made  effective,  not 
only,  and  probably  not  chiefly,  through  his  overwhelm- 
ing eloquence,  but  because  he  put  into  words,  biting, 
burning,  unforgettable  words,  the  sentiments  which 
were  and  had  long  been  vaguely  in  the  people's 
hearts.  In  any  case,  through  the  plea  of  a  man  him- 
self a  devout  communicant  of  the  Church,  addressed  to 
a  jury  composed  of  hereditary  Churchmen,  the  Church 
in  the  person  of  its  clergy  was  defeated  in  a  case  Avhere 
it  had  all  the  law,  all  the  justice,  and  all  the  traditions 
of  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  on  its  side.  The  Church 
appealed  to  Csesar,  —  and  lost.  The  appeal  was  never 
repeated.  The  breach  was  final.^  Ten  years  later,  it 
was  evident  to  all  that  the  Church  could  not  grow  in 
America  until  it  should  be,  either  by  kindly  or  forcible 
means,  disentangled  from  the  English  state. 

Passing   southward    from    Virginia,    the    population 

gradually    became    more   sparse,    and    clustered   about 

Charleston  and  Savannah  as  its  chief  jjoints 

The  Church  . 

in  other  of    radiation.      The    Church    life   in    Ogle- 

coomes.  thorpe's  Georgia  settlement  will  come  in 
sight  in  connection  with  Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys 
and  the  Methodist  movement.  In  North  Carolina  it 
remained  weak  throughout  the  century.  The  Scotch 
and  later  on  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  early  made 
a  lodgement  in  the  territory,  and  became,  in  connection 
with  the  Baptists,^  the  dominant  religious  influence.    In 

1  Tyler:  Patrick  Henry,  p.  77. 

2  Benedict:  History  of  the  Baptist  Denominatiou  in  America.  Boston, 
1820,'  p.  333. 


-  H 


THE   COMMISSARIES  :   VIRGINIA.  125 

South  Carolina  at  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  cent- 
ury, there  was  one  strong  parish  at  Charleston,  —  the 
only  one  in  the  province.  Between  that  time  and  the 
Revolution  it  had  gained  another  parisli  in  the  same 
city,  had  spread  to  Beaufort,  and  from  there  as  a 
second  centre,  to  Goosecreek,  Prince  George,  Santee, 
through  and  among  the  new  plantations,  and  in  the 
new  settlements,  as  they  one  by  one  sprang  up.^  As 
early  as  1707  the  S.  P.  G.  maintained  six  clergy  in  the 
province  and  had  sent  over  two  thousand  volumes  of 
books  for  gratuitous  distribution. ^  Two-thirds  of  the 
population  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  were  Dis- 
senters. This  proportion  was  increased  by  a  stream  of 
immigration  from  Massachusetts  and  the  Northern  colo- 
nies. The  Church  of  England,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
swelled  by  a  considerable  number  of  French  Huguenots, 
whose  names  still  survive.  An  ill-advised  and  impotent 
attempt  to  establish  the  Cliurch,  with  rigorous  laws 
against  the  Dissenters,  —  an  attempt  so  indefensible 
that  Queen  Anne  declared  the  act  null  and  void,  and 
the  S.  P.  G.  refused  to  send  any  more  missionaries  till 
it  should  be  abandoned,  —  gained  the  ill-v/ill  of  the 
majority  of  the  people.  In  spite,  however,  of  the  inter- 
nal broils  in  the  colony,  of  frequent  and  wasteful  wars 
with  the  Indians  ;  in  spite  of  the  demoralizing  effect  of 
slavery,  which,  owing  to  the  rice  culture,  showed  itself 
more  quickly  in  South  Carolina  than  elsewhere,^  the 
Church  continued  to  more  than  hold  her  own  until  the 


1  J.  J.  Pringle  Smith,  in  Perry:   History,  vol.  i.  p.  Ho8. 

2  Graliam:  Colonial  History,  vol.  i.  p.  389. 

3  lb. :  p.  292. 


126       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IX   THE   COLONIES. 

great  cataclysm.^  A  larger  proportion  of  native-born 
clergy  were  probably  produced  in  this  than  in  any  other 
colony  save  Connecticut.  This  fact  kept  the  priesthood 
and  people  more  in  touch  with  each  other,  and  saved 
the  Church  there  from  much  of  the  evil  which  befell  her 
in  Maryland  and  Virginia. 

In  the  Northern  group  of  colonies  the  Connnissary 
regime  was  little  more  than  a  name.  The  local 
churches,  for  the  most  part,  managed  their  own  affairs. 

i  Perry :  History,  vol.  i.  p.  SO-i. 


^HE  NEW  ENGLAND  CONVERTS.        127 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  CONVERTS. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  last  century  there  lived  at 
Guilford,  Coun.,  a  certain  ^Ir.  Smithson,  whose  name 
President  ^^'^'^  been  kept  from  oblivion  through  a  single 
Cutler.  kindly  deed  of  his.     He  gave  a  Prayer-Book 

to  young  Timothy  Cutler,  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  and  a 
candidate  for  the  Puritan  ministry.  In  1720  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Cutler  was  the  honored  president  of  Yale  College, 
and  had  read  his  Prayer-Book  to  good  purj)ose.  Re- 
mote from  the  Chui'ch,  unskilled  in  her  ways,  holding 
higli  office  in  a  society  which  was  her  hereditary  enemy, 
he  had  learned  to  love  the  Prayer-Book,  and  to  think  of 
the  Church  kindly.  INlany  of  the  prayers  he  committed 
to  memory,  and  used,  consciously  and  unconsciousl}-,  in 
his  conduct  of  public  worship.  Their  spirit  colored  all 
his  own  effusions,  until  he  came  to  be  noted  for  his 
"  gifts  in  prayer."  ^  He  gathered  about  him  a  little 
group  of  men  like-minded  with  himself,  and  for  several 
years  they  quietly  and  patiently  pursued  a  study  of  the 
nature  and  organization  of  the  Church.  Just  a  century 
before,  this  had  been  the  l)urning  question  of  the  age. 
But  at  that  time  the  combatants  on  either  hand  had 
not  been  in  a  temper  to  settle  it  on  its  merits.     With 

1  Beardsley:  History  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut,  vol.  i.  p.  34. 


128       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IX  THE   COLONIES. 

Laud  on  the  one  side  and  the  Puritans  on  the  other. 
Star  Chamber  writs,  broadswords,  and  pikes  had  l)een 
the  weapons.  The  sparks  struck  in  such  colUsions  are 
brilliant  but  not  illuminating.  The  Truth  had  shrunk 
away  into  the  background,  as  she  always  does  to  avoid 
strife.  But  now  the  contest  had  long  ago  subsided. 
Episcopacy  had  won  in  Old  England  and  Presbytery  in 
the  New.  The  parties  to  the  strife  deemed  the  matter 
settled  because  they  were  out  of  each  other's  hearing. 
President  Cutler  and  his  friends  were  Presbyterians,  but 
students,  calm-minded  and  lovers  of  truth. 

A  question  pressed  upon  them  which  is  one  of  the  most 
imperious  that  can  assail  any  man,  and  is,  at  the  same 
The  question  time,  oue  for  the  entertainment  of  which  he 
of  Orders.  usually  receives  little  sympathy.  To  speak 
for  God  as  His  minister  is  the  most  awful  prerogative 
that  any  man  can  assume.  No  sober-minded  man  will 
offer  to  do  so  without  the  clearest  warrant.  But  from 
where  shall  he  receive  tliis  warrant  ?  No  man  can  give 
it  to  him  of  his  own  authority.  He  cannot  trust  to 
his  own  inward  "  call,"  for  he  knows  too  well  the 
untrustworthiness  of  human  emotions.  Whence  shall 
he  derive  a  commission  which  will  justify  him  to  him- 
self in  the  assumption  of  so  great  an  office  ?  An  honest 
search  for  the  answer  to  this  question  has  led  into  the 
ministry  of  this  Church  a  large  proportion  of  her  priest- 
hood. They  ask  themselves,  "  By  what  authority  doest 
thou  these  things,  and  who  gave  thee  this  authority  ?  " 
The  unique  honor  of  being  the  first  of  this  class  in 
the  American  Church  belongs  to  President  Cutler  and 
the   little    group    of    Puritan    ministers   who    gathered 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  CONVERTS.        129 

about  liini.  The  college  library  provided  the  means 
to  solve  their  doubts.  Scant  as  it  was,  it  fortunately 
contained  the  works  of  Barrow,  Tillotson,  Burnet, 
Sherlock,  Patrick,  and  Whitby,  masters  ^  of  definition 
and  argument  for  the  Episcopal  theory  of  the  Church. 
Slowly,  and  evidently  with  reluctance,  the  little  band 
of  students  were  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  their 
ministerial  commissions  were  defective,  not  because 
their  acts  under  them  were  lacking  in  power,  —  a  pirate 
or  a  guerilla  chieftain  may  be  potent  without  any  com- 
mission, —  but  because  they  were  lacking  in  authority, 
emanating  as  they  did  from  an  organization  which  had 
separated  itself  from  the  league  of  Christian  States.  "  I 
hoped,"  says  one  of  them,  '■'■  that  when  I  was  ordained  I 
had  satisfied  myself  of  the  validity  of  Presbyterian  ordi- 
nation under  the  circumstances.  But  alas  !  I  have  ever 
since  had  growing  suspicions  that  all  is  not  right,  and 
that  I  am  an  usurper  in  the  House  of  God.*'  Of  course, 
this  will  seem  but  the  vagary  of  a  diseased  sentiment, 
to  all  who  think  of  the  Church  as  organized  by  men 
and  deriving  its  authority  from  the  consent  of  its 
members.  But  he  who  has  a  deep  sense  of  the  very 
reality  of  priestly  acts,  esjjecially  if  he  have  a  timid 
conscience,  will  understand  and  sympathize  with  his 
perplexity.  Gradually  the  convictions  of  the  little 
company  settled  upon  the  Church  of  England.  It 
The  Church's  attracted  them,  not  as  a  strong  political 
attraction.  establishment,  —  its  political  entanglement 
was  but  a  stumbling-block  to  them ;  not  by  the  sweet 
strains  of  its   Liturgy,  —  that  sound  had  never  fallen 

1  Beardsley :  History  of  the  Cliurch  in  Connecticut,  vol.  i.  p.  35. 


180       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

upon  their  ears  ;  not  by  its  formulated  dogmas,  — 
these  did  not  seriously  differ  from  those  which  they 
Jield  already  ;  but  solely  by  its  power  as  an  Apostolic 
Church  to  confer  a  valid  commissiou  upon  men  to 
preach  the  Divine  Word  and  administer  the  awful 
Sacraments.  This  clear  and  simple  conviction  deter- 
mined their  action,  and,  through  them  and  their  spirit- 
ual successors,  went  far  to  fix  in  that  mould  in  which 
it  is  still  held,  the  American  Church's  way  of  thinking 
of  the  ministry. 

Few  of  these  men's  confreres  knew  or  suspected  the 
direction  in  which  they  were  moving.  At  the  college 
commencement  Sept.  13,  1722,  President  Cutler  asked 
the  trustees  to  meet  him  in  the  library  at  the  close  of 
the  exercises.  When  all  were  assembled  he  read  them 
a  statement  which  acted  upon  them,  and  through  them 
upon  New  England  society,  like  an  electric  shock. 
The  statement,  signed  by  himself  and  six  tutors  and 
fellows  of  the  college,  stripped  to  simplicity,  was,  that 
the  signers  were  doubtful  of  or  convinced  against  the 
validity  of  Presbyterian  ordination,  and  had  deter- 
mined to  apply  for  Orders  in  the  Church  of  England. 
The  surprise  and  consternation  were  indescribable.  It 
was  as  though  in  our  day  the  president  and  faculty  of 
Princeton  should  declare  for  the  Pope,  or  the  dean  and 
professors  of  the  General  Seminary  should  avow  them- 
selves Quakers.  Lamentation  resounded  on  every  hand. 
A  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  called  to  avert  the 
Divine  wrath  at  the  strange  defection  of  these  leaders 
in  Israel.  The  converts  had  offered  to  make  a  public 
statement  and  defence  of  their  position  if  it  should  be 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  CONVERTS.        131 

desired.  It  was  desired,  and  a  day  for  the  great  debate 
fixed  during  the  session  of  the  Connecticut  Legislature. 
The  Governor,  Saltonstall,  presided  with  courtesy  and 
fairness,  rebuking  the  railing  spirit  in  which  their  oppo- 
nents conducted  their  arguments.  Of  course  nothing 
came  of  the  debate  but  to  fix  each  side  more  firmly  in 
its  own  opinion.  Cutler  was  "  excused "  from  any 
further  duties  in  the  college.  Three  of  his  associates 
resigned  their  charges  and  cast  in  their  lot  with  him, 
burninof  their  bridgfes  behind  them.  Several,  more 
timid  or  less  convinced,  retained  their  connection  with 
the  Puritan  establishment,  but  preserving  all  their 
lives  a  friendly  attitude  toward  the  Church.  Three 
President        ^^   them,  Cutler,  Brown,  and  Johnson,  pro- 

Cutier  and       eeeded  at  once   to    England  for    ordination, 
professors  en- 
ter the  Their  name  and  tame  had  gone  before  tliem. 

^^'^  '  They  were  received  with  a  warm  welcome. 

Cutler  and  Johnson  were  ordained,  but  Brown  perished 
of  smallpox.  A  second  parish  lately  organized  in 
Boston  called  Cutler  to  be  its  rector.  Johnson  went 
to  Stratford,  where  there  had  been  for  many  years  a 
little  group  of  Church  of  England  families,  became 
their  pastor,  and  entered  upon  that  long  career  of  use 
and  influence  hardly  surpassed  by  any  name  in  the 
Church's  annals.  He  was  invited  by  Benjamin  Franklin 
to  become  the  head  of  the  newly  organized  College  of 
Philadelphia,  later  known  as  the  University  of  Peini- 
sylvania.  He  declined,  and  accepted  another  invitation 
to  the  presidency  of  King's  C-ollege,  afterward  Columbia 
University. 

The  great  gain  to  the  American  Church  by  this  move- 


132       THE   ENGLISH   CHUKCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

nient  was  not  that  she  had  added  half  a  dozen  able  men 
to  her  meagre  ministry.  It  was  that  a  new  and  abid- 
Beginningof  i"g  ^^urce  of  supply  liad  been  opened, 
a  movement.  These  were  but  the  advanced  guard  of  a 
host  of  men  of  similar  type  who  have  entered  the 
Church  since  their  time  from  the  same  motives.  It 
was  the  sporadic  outbreak  in  America  of  the  movement 
which  had  set  in  still  earlier  in  England.  "  At  this 
time  there  was  a  strong  tendency  in  the  Presbyterian 
type  of  Puritanism  to  conform  in  England.  ...  A 
little  reasonableness  on  tlie  part  of  the  English  bisho})s 
would  have  swept  the  entire  Presbyterian  party  of  Eng- 
land into  the  Established  Church."  ^  Their  influence 
was  at  once  felt  in  New  England,  beginning  in  Con- 
necticut. Within  a  generation  the  Church  under  the 
leadership  of  a  native  born  ministry  had  penetrated 
every  town,  had  effected  a  lodgement  in  every  Puritan 
stronghold,  had  drawn  into  her  membership  large 
numbers  of  that  sober-minded,  self-contained,  tenacious 
people  who  constitute  her  meml)ership  in  New  England 
p    ..  .  to-day.    The  opposition  of  the  Puritan  author- 

sition.  ities  was  pronounced  and  bitter.     It  showed 

itself  in  a  series  of  petty  and  vexatious  acts  of  persecu- 
tion, some  of  which  amounted  to  grievous  wrongs. 
But  the  innate  kindliness  and  cautious  fair-mindedness 
of  the  Connecticut  people  constantly  interposed  to  break 
the  blows  of  Puritan  zeal.^  Laws  were  made  which 
worked  in  favor  of  the  "'  Established  Order  "  and  against 
the  Church,  and  remained  in  force  for  a  hundred  and 

1  Biigj^s:  American  Presbyterianism,  p.  14G. 

2  Perry:  History,  i.  290,  et  seq. 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  CONVERTS.        133 

fifty  years.^  Occasionally  they  wrought  great  hard- 
ship, but,  upon  the  whole,  the  Church  in  New  Eng- 
land had  less  to  complain  of  in  the  eighteenth  century 
tlian  dissenters  had  in  New  York  and  the  Southern 
colonies.  The  idea  of  invoking  force  of  any  sort  to 
the  aid  of  doctrine  or  order  was  gradually  but  surely 
retiring  into  that  evil  place  from  which  it  had  emerged 
to  curse  the  Church  of  God. 

The  drift  toward  the  Church  in  New  England 
received  a  very  substantial  impulse  by  the  visit  to 
D&anBerke-  America  of  one  of  England's  great  and  holy 
ley-  men.     In  1729   Dean    Berkeley  commenced 

his  three  years'  sojourn  at  Newport  in  the  interest  of 
his  brilliant  but  fruitless  scheme  of  a  great  American 
University.  His  plan  was  to  establish  somewhere  a 
foundation  which  should  be  to  the  colonies  what  Ox- 
ford and  Cambridge  were  to  Britain.  It  is  his  great 
honor  to  have  been  the  first  of  eminent  Englishmen  to 
discern  the  future  greatness  of  the  western  world. 
He  prayed  and  strove  that  it  might  be  built  up  upon  the 
twin  foundations  of  religion  and  learning.  He  was 
himself  a  notable  example  of  both.  By  dint  of  his 
wonderful  power  of  persuading  men,  and  the  sweet 
graciousness  of  his  person,  he  had  extorted  from  the 
English  minister,  Walpole,  a  g]-ant  of  twenty  thousand 
pounds  for  his  American  University.  But  to  secure 
the  grant  was  one  thing,  to  secure  the  money  quite 
another.     Walpole  intimated  to  him  that  it  would  not 

1  It  was  not  until  1878  that  the  parishes  in  Connecticut  were  at  liberty 
to  organize  according  to  the  Cluuch's  theory ;  up  to  that  time  they  were 
all  chartered  as  Congregational  "  Societies  "  under  a  general  act. 


134       THE  ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE  COLONIES. 

likely  be  paid  unless  he  should  show  his  earnestness  in 
the  matter  by  going  himself  to  America.  In  pursuance 
of  this  advice,  he  took  up  his  abode  at  Newport.  His 
reputation  as  a  philosopher,  a  scholar,  and  a  saint,  liad 
preceded  him.  Learned  men  in  America  made  pilgrim- 
ages to  meet  him,  and  came  away  unconsciously  biassed 
in  favor  of  a  Church  which  could  produce  and  retain 
such  a  man.  The  fact  that  the  representatives  of  roy- 
alty in  the  colonies  were  always  Churchmen  had  had  its 
effect  in  attracting  many  to  her.  Now  the  fact  that  a 
prince  in  the  kingdom  of  letters  was  one  of  her  sons 
brought  her  into  reputation  in  a  different  quarter.  His 
visitors  went  to  see  a  philosopher  and  found  also  a 
Churchman.  The  effect  of  his  sojourn  was  marked  in 
many  ways.  His  friend  the  painter  Smibert  followed 
his  fortunes,  and  from  Smibert  the  Americans  Coj)ley 
and  West  caught  their  inspiration.^  When  he  returned 
to  England,  despairing  of  his  project,  he  left  his  library 
of  one  thousand  volumes  to  Yale  College  and  gave  his 
Rhode  Island  farm  to  found  a  post-graduate  scholarship 
in  the  same  university.  These  gifts  were  golden  bene- 
factions to  the  struggling  learning  of  the  time.  From 
his  foundation  at  Yale,  a  stream  of  great  men  have 
gone  forth,  all  more  or  less  influenced  by  his  spirit,  and 
with  a  kindly  feeling  towards  the  Church  of  their  bene- 
factor. By  his  gift  the  immortal  writings  of  Hooker 
and  Chillingworth  found  a  place  in  the  college  library 
and  moulded  the  lives  of  many  of  the  seekers  after  the 
Church.^     His  advice  and  counsel  fixed  in  the  structure 

1  Arnold:  History  of  Rliode  Island,  ii.  p.  99. 

2  Beardsley:  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,  p.  75. 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  CONVERTS.        385 

of  Pennsylvania  University  and  Columbia  College,  that 
principle  of  union  in  religion  and  learning  which  these 
institutions  so  long  retained.^  As  a  Christian,  a  Church- 
man, and  a  man,  he  greatly  promoted  the  success  which 
marked  the  Church  in  the  Northern  colonies  through 
the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

1  Beardsley:  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,  p.  75. 


i3t)       THE  ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE    "GREAT   AWAKENING." 

In  1735  Jonathan  Edwards  was  pastor  of  the  Puritan 
cluircli  of  Northamjjton,  Massachusetts.^  Young  man 
Jonathan  ^^  ^^^  was,  he  was  already  famous.  When  a 
Edwards.  mere  chikl,  he  knew  Greek  and  Hebrew. 
When  a  hid,  he  pondered  deeply  upon  "  fate,  free-will, 
foreknowledge  absolute."  In  his  beautiful  body  dwelt 
the  fairest  of  souls,  and  the  subtlest  of  understandings. 
His  sweet  young  wife  had  also  dreamed  dreams  and 
seen  visions.  A  pair  of  mj-stics,  enthusiasts,  poets,  and 
theologians,  they  journeyed  hand  in  hand  to  his  first 
parish  at  Northampton.  He  began  his  ministiy  at  the 
time  when  the  lament  was  heard  on  eveiy  hand  that 
pure  religion  was  perishing  from  off  the  face  of  the 
earth.  The  lament  was  not  without  cause.  A  distinct 
relaxation  of  religious  life  had  already  set  in,  and  was 
as  marked  in  New  England  as  elsewliere  in  the  colonies. 
"  It  began  as  soon  as  it  was  evident  that  the  unique 
experiment  of  the  Puritan  fathej's  was  over,  when  the 
theocracy  which  had  inspired  such  enthusiasm  was 
hastening  to  its  downfall.  It  was  as  if  God  had  turned 
away  from  favoring  an  enterprise  which  had  His  glory 

1  Allen:  Life  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  pp.  133,  248. 

1  Tracy:  The  Great  Awakening,  Boston,  ISiH,  passint 


THE   "GREAT  AWAKENING."  137 

in  view  as  its  sole  object  and  justification."  i  The  fierce 
religionism  of  the  early  Puritan  life  could  not  be  sus- 
tained. In  a  century  it  had  burned  itself  out.  A  revolt 
against  its  hard  and  exacting  spirit  had  already  spread. 
Only  the  shell  of  it  remained.  The  strong,  if  unlovely, 
life  which  had  tenanted  it  was  dying.  Its  remaining 
energy  was  wasting  itself  in  theological  quarrels  barren 
of  permanent  result.^  Meanwhile,  carelessness  of  relig- 
ion and  looseness  of  living  were  rife.  Edwards's  deeply 
religious  spirit  was  profoundly  moved  by  the  situation 
when  he  came  to  realize  it.  Believing,  as  he  did  with 
all  his  being,  in  the  inborn  helplessness  of  all  men  to  do 
or  think  any  good  thing,  in  a  heaven  whose  ravishing 
beauty  his  poetic  eye  could  see,  and  a  hell  whose  black- 
ness and  torment  were  to  him  a  very  present  fact,  his 
preaching  assumed  a  tone  which  had  not  before  been 
heard.  His  great  store  of  theology  furnished  him  with 
matter,  his  poetic  instinct  enabled  him  to  set  it  in 
colors  which  men  coidd  not  help  but  see,  his  psycho- 
logic skill  qualified  him  to  find  a  lodgement  for  his 
words  in  the  heart  and  imagination  of  every  hearer. 
The  "Re-  Sucli  semions  as  his  had  never  been  heard. 
Nonhamp-  From  preaching  to  his  people  once  on  Sun- 
ton-  day,  he  came  to  preaching  thrice.  Then 
they  came  in  crowds  to  hear  him  on  a  week-day  as  well. 
Then  he  preached  every  day.  Then  all  business  was 
gradnally  laid  aside,  and  the  people  asked,  "■  Brethren, 
what  must  I  do  to  be  saved?"  All  human  concerns 
fell  into  insignificance  before  the  great  question  in  the 

1  Allen:  p.  53. 

2  e.  g.,  the  "  Half-way  Covenant." 


138       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IX   THE   COLONIES. 

presence  of  wliich  the   whole  community  sat  down  in 
despair. 

The  peculiar  answer  which  Edwards  gave  to  this 
question  has  profoundly  affected  the  religious  life  of 
America,  shaped  the  fortunes  of  the  Church,  and  yet 
dominates  the  Christian  life  of  the  land.  Before  his 
time  both  Churchman  and  Puritan  had  conceived  of 
religion  as  an  outward  life.  It  was  obedience  to  a  law 
or  set  of  laws.  It  consisted  of  moral  and  religious 
conduct.  The  two  parties  had  differed  profoundly  and 
often  as  to  what  particular  action  or  class  of  actions 
were  bounden  on  a  Christian,  but  they  had  been  at  one 
in  the  assumption  that  religion  is  a  question  of  right 

Edwards  taught  that  it  was  a  question  of  right  feel- 
ing. His  theory  has  passed  into  the  popular  mind  and 
Edwards's  is  yet  dominant.  He  replied  to  the  eager 
theory  of  questionings  of  his  Northampton  people  that 
sion."  "conversion"    is  a   drama  which  must  per- 

force be  played  out  consciously  in  each  individual  soul. 
Its  characteristic  stages  were,  first,  a  profound  and 
awful  sense  of  sin,  guilt,  helplessness,  fear  of  God's 
wrath,  dread  of  dire  penalty,  an  internal  agony  which 
might  border  close  upon  madness;  second,  a  period 
more  or  less  prolonged  of  doubtfulness,  hope  alternated 
with  despair,  glimpses  of  God's  mercy  only  to  be 
obscured  by  the  vapors  rising  from  a  corru[)t  heart; 
third,  a  sudden  and  conscious  emergence  into  a  haven 
of  sweet  peace,  a  serene  and  heavenly  frame,  a  sense 

'  Roger  Williams  liad  been  banished  for  teaching  that  it  is  an  inward 
experience. 


THE    "GREAT   AWAKENING."  139 

of  pardoned  sin  and  acceptance  with  God.  He  and 
his  gracions  wife,  children  of  God  from  the  womb, 
persuaded  themselves  that  they  had  passed  through  this 
sequence  of  experiences.  He  watched  over  his  in- 
quirers, and  led  them  with  infinite  skill  through  its 
stages,  —  preserving  the  while  the  curious  attitude  of  a 
scientitic  observer  of  the  phenomena,  —  and  helped  them 
to  find  peace  for  their  souls. 

His  peculiar  doctrine  of  salvation  possesses  singular 
fascination  for  the  populace.  It  is  capable  of  being  put 
to  an  immediate  test.  It  is  less  burdensome  and  exact- 
ing than  it  is  to  confront  with  a  definite  Christian 
purpose  the  complex  and  contradictory  experiences  of 
human  life. 

The  revival  quickly  passed  beyond  the  bounds  of  the 
Northampton  parish,  but  by  the  time  it  liad  done  so  it 
"  Bodily  ex-  ^^^^^  taken  on  another  peculiarity  even  more 
ercises."  striking.      In    the    spiritual    agony    through 

which  awakened  souls  were  passing  daily,  the  bodies  of 
some  began  to  show  a  strange  sympathy.  Men  fell 
prostrate  upon  the  earth  and  lay  writhing,  tliey  lost 
temporarily  the  power  of  speech,  their  limbs  moved 
rhythmically,  heaven  and  hell  became  visible  to  their 
fixed  and  staring  eyes.  This  new  phenomenon  for  the 
moment  staggered  Edwards,  but  he  soon  satisfied  him- 
/;elf  that  it  came  from  God.  Why  sliould  not  the  body 
sympathize  with  the  soul?  It  was  but  tlie  outward 
sign  of  the  inward  and  invisible  grace  at  work.  He  at 
once  encouraged  and  tried  to  regulate  tlie  strange  mani- 
festation. The  outbreak  of  this  new  phenomenon 
attracted  fresh  attention   to  the  movement.     It  beo-an 


140       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IX   THE   COLONIES. 

to  spread.  Sober  and  godly  men  set  themselves 
against  it  in  vain.  Such  opposition  is  always  but  half- 
Spread  of  the  hearted,  from  fear  lest  haply  one  be  found 
movement.  fighting  against  God.  Deerfield,  Springfield, 
and  far-away  New  Haven  were  "  awakened."  Churclmien 
and  the  more  conservative  Presbyterians  stood  aloof  from 
the  movement,!  but  the  latter,  after  a  long  stand  against 
'^  enthusiasm,"  succumbed.  The  movement  gathered 
strength  and  impetus  as  it  spread.  Gilbert  and  Wil- 
liam Tennent  became  its  leaders  in  New  Jersey.  It 
swept  in  the  Scotch  Presbytei-ians  in  the  back  settle- 
ments of  Pennsylvania.  It  worked  down  the  valleys  of 
Virginia,  and  drew  in  the  multitudes  of  lapsed  and  in- 
different Churchmen.  It  climbed  the  mountains  into 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  It  found  a  welcome  among 
the  mystical  German  sects,  and  touched  the  mercurial 
Welsh  Churchmen  among  the  foot-hills  of  the  AUegha- 
nies.  As  it  moved  on  through  its  seventy  years'  course 
its  distinctive  features  became  more  and  more  marked. 
Strangest  of  all,  they  ceased  to  excite  surprise,  and 
came  to  be  accepted  as  the  ordinary  concomitants  of 
religion.  An  eye-witness  narrates  ^  that  "  a  hundred 
and  fifty  of  the  congregation  were  so  affected  with 
violent  spasmodic  contractions  of  the  muscles, 
jerking  their  heads  quickly  from  side  to  side, 
frequently  throwing  their  persons  upon  the  ground, 
where  they  floundered  like  live  fish.  I  have  seen  all 
denominations  of  religion  exercised  the  same  way,  — 
gentleman  and  lady,  black  and  white,  young  and  old, 

1  Briggs:  American  Presbyterian,  pp.  251-2. 

2  Tracy:  Great  Awakening,  p.  222. 


THE    "GREAT   AWAKENING."  141 

without  exception.  I  have  passed  a  meetmg-house 
about  which  the  undergrowth  had  been  cut  awa}^  leav- 
ing a  hundred  sapHngs  standing  breast-higli,  for  the 
people  to  hold  on  to  when  thej  should  have  the  jerks.  I 
observed  that  when  they  had  held  on  by  them  they  had 
kicked  up  the  earth  as  a  horse  does  when  stamping 
flies."  Not  only  converts  were  so  seized,  but  those  who 
came  to  mock  as  well  as  those  who  came  to  pray. 
Sometimes  it  took  grotesque  and  ludicrous  forms. 
Some  turned  unseemly  somersaults  in  the  air;  others 
leaped  and  yelled  as  the  devil  in  departing  rended 
them ;  and  once  a  pack  of  men  were  found  barking  up 
a  tree  where  they  had  '^  treed  the  devil."  ^ 

When  the    movement  reached   Georgia    it   came    in 
Meets  contact  with  the  Church  of  England  in  the 

whitefieid.  person  of  George  Whitefield.  In  response 
to  Wesley's  cry  for  aid,  Whitefield  had  come  out 
to  Oglethorpe's  colony  as  missionary  to  the  Indians. 
Few  men  were  ever  less  fitted  for  that  duty.  Wis- 
dom, patience,  caution,  the  qualities  which  the  mis- 
sionary to  the  heathen  needs,  Whitefield  had  none  of. 
Half-educated,  impetuous,  self-conscious,  ignorant  of 
himself,  impatient  of  law,  but  with  a  burning  religious 
zeal,  and  a  power  of  popular  eloquence  as  great  as 
was  ever  given  to  mortal  man,  he  was  fitted  to 
become  the  champion  of  the  "Great  Awakening." 
Laying  aside  all  liis  plans  and  work,  and  disregarding 
all  authority,  he  took  up  tlie  burden  of  Jonathan 
Edwards's  prophecy.  Bearing  Whitefield  on  its  crest, 
a  reflex  wave    of   enthusiasm    swept   back   northward, 

1  McMaster:  History  of  the  People  of  tlie  United  States,  vol.  ii.  p.  580. 


142       THE    ENGLISH    CHUKCII    IX   THE   COLONIES. 

upturning  Cliurcli  order,  sweeping  some  into  the  king- 
dom and  leaving  others  stranded  at  its  el)b,  until  the 
two  prophets  met  in  Edwards's  parsonage  in  little 
Northampton.  Whitefield's  presence  was  a  stumbling- 
stone  and  a  rock  of  offence.  He  was  a  clero-yman  of 
the  Church  of  England.  With  but  very  few  exceptions, 
Attitude  of  his  brethren  had  held  aloof  from  or  definitely 
to  the ''^e'-  oppo.sed  the  movement.  Its  root  principle 
vivai."  seemed  to  them  to  be  both  false  and  danger- 

ous.  Whitefield  assailed  them  savagely,  as  liis  success- 
ors have  often  done  since,  for  their  bearing  toward  "this 
gracious  work  of  God."  "  Unconverted  men ; "  "  with- 
out vital  piety  ;  *'  "  pagans  ;  "  "  dumb  dogs  that  will 
not  bark,"  were  tlie  best  words  he  had  for  them.  He 
ostentatiously  turned  his  back  upon  his  fellows,  and 
became  the  hero  of  the  revivalists.  The  Puritan  clergy 
made  much  of  his  zeal,  contrasting  it  with  the  cold 
morality  of  tlie  Church  to  the  latter's  great  discredit. 
Churchmen  either  openly  defended  their  position  or 
The  reac-  waited  for  the  reaction  which  was  sure  to 
tion.  come.     It  came   even  sooner  than  they  had 

expected.  The  disorders  which  arise  from  the  preva- 
lence of  a  religion  of  the  emotions  divorced  from  the 
ordinances  of  the  Church  and  the  sanctions  of  the  con- 
science soon  made  themselves  seen.^     Tlie  "  travelling 

i  The  Rev.  Timothy  Cutler  writes  from  Boston,  September  24,  174-3: 
"  Whitefiekl  lias  plagued  us  with  a  witness,  especially  his  friends  and  fol- 
lowers, wiio  themselves  are  like  to  be  battered  to  pieces  by  that  batter- 
ing-ram they  had  provided  against  our  Church  here.  It  would  be  an 
endless  attempt  to  describe  that  scene  of  confusion  and  disturbance 
occasioned  by  him,—  the  division  of  families,  neighborhoods,  and  towns, 
the  contrariety  of  husbands  and  wives,  the  undutifulness  of  children  and 
servants,  the  quarrels  among  teachers,  the  disorders  of  the  night,  tlie 
intermission  of    labor  and    business,   the   neglect  of  husbandry  and  of 


THE   '•  GREAT    AWAKENING."  143 

preachers "  who  swarmed  in  New  England  brought 
such  confusion  into  even  the  "  Established  Order"  that 
the  Puritan  ministers  themselves  could  not  endure  it. 
Whitefield  turned  away  in  dudgeon  from  the  gentle 
rebuke  of  Edwards  for  his  ill-tempered  zeal,  returned  to 
England,  and  exercised  his  wonderful  gifts,  held  in 
order  by  the  tight  hand  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon. 
Edwards  found  the  hearts  of  his  own  converts  and  par- 
ishioners turned  against  him.  They  whom  he  had  car- 
ried through  the  crisis  of  their  religious  experiences 
refused  longer  to  listen  to  him.  Disappointed  and 
heart-broken,  he  turned  his  steps  away  from  his  beloved 
Northampton,  to  his  new  home  among  the  savage 
Indians. 

gathering  the  harvest.  Our  presses  are  forever  teeming  with  books,  and 
our  women  with  bastards,  thougli  regeneration  and  conversion  is  tlie 
whole  cry.  The  teachers  have,  many  of  them,  left  their  particular  cures, 
and  strolled  about  the  country.  Some  have  been  ordained  by  them 
EvaiKjelizers,  and  had  their  Armor-bearers  and  Exhorters ;  and  in 
many  conventicles  and  places  of  rendezvous  there  has  been  checkered 
work,  indeed,  several  preaching,  and  several  exhorting  and  praying  at 
the  same  time,  the  rest  crying  or  laughing,  yelping,  sprawling,  fainting, 
and  this  revel  maintained  in  some  places  many  days  and  nights  together, 
without  intermission;  and  then  theie  were  the  blessed  outpourings  of 
the  Spirit! 

"  When  Mr.  Whitefield  first  arrived  here  the  whole  town  was  alarmed. 
He  made  his  first  visit  to  church  on  a  Friday,  and  conversed  first  with 
many  of  our  clergy  together,  belied  them,  me  especially,  when  he  had 
done.  Being  not  invited  into  our  pulpits,  the  Dissenters  were  highly 
pleased,  and  engrossed  him;  and  immediately  the  bells  rung,  and  all 
hands  went  to  lecture;  and  this  show  kept  on  all  the  while  he  was  here. 

"  After  him  came  one  Tenneiit,  a  monster  !  impudent  and  noisy,  and 
told  them  they  were  all  damn'd,  damn'd,  damn'd;  this  charmed  tliem, 
and  in  the  most  dreadful  winter  I  ever  saw,  people  wallowed  in  the 
snow  night  and  day  for  the  benefit  of  his  beastly  brayings ;  and  many 
ended  their  days  under  these  fatigues.  Both  of  them  carried  more 
money  out  of  these  parts  than  tlie  poor  could  be  thankful  for. 

"  All  this  turned  to  the  growth  of  the  Church  in  many  places,  and  its 
reputation  univei'sally;  and  it  suffers  no  otherwise  than  as  religion  iu 
general  does,  and  that  is  sadly  enough." 


144       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

The  effect  of  the  movement  upon  the  religious  life  of 

America  cannot  be  over-estimated.     It  obliterated  the 

old  ecclesiastical  divisions,  and  drew  a  new 
Effect  upon 
American  re-  line  of  cleavage.     It  set  and  fixed  the  Church 

igion-  j^j-^  ^j-^^^^  position  which  she  still  holds  in  Amer- 

ican Protestantism.  She  was  thrust  by  it  involuntarily 
into  that  place  which  has  proven  her  stronghold.  There 
have  been  in  this  country  since  the  "  Great  Awaken- 
ing," and  chiefly  as  its  result,  two  radically  distinct 
conceptions  of  Christianity.  According  to  one  theory 
it  is  primarily  an  experience,  following  in  the  main  that 
which  Edwards  first  fastened  upon  the  popular  mind. 
It  appeals  to  consciousness.  It  devises  machinery  to 
awake  the  emotions.  When  they  flag  it  has  whips  to 
stimulate  them  anew.  It  has  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress  " 
for  its  hornbook.  Christian,  the  pilgrim,  is  the  type  of 
the  truly  converted  man.  It  makes  little  of  Sacra- 
ments. It  empties  them  of  their  grace,  and  finds  their 
rationale  as  a  system  of  mnemonics.  It  distinguishes 
sharply  between  religion  and  morality.  It  uses  faith  as 
a  word  representing  not  the  thing  believed,  but  only 
the  act  of  believing.  It  speaks  its  mind  unconsciously 
in  Moody  and  Sankey's  hymns. 

For  tlie  other  theory  the  Church  stands  as  the  best 
accredited  representative.  This  has  for  its  starting- 
The  Church's  poiut  not  the  adult,  but  the  Christian  child, 
position.  j^  assumes  it  to  be  a  child  of  God.  It  leans 
on  Christian  nurture.  It  looks  upon  the  Church  as  the 
hospitable  home  in  which  all  have  a  right ;  a  right  not 
contingent  upon  the  passage  through  a  conventional 
experience.     It  looks  upon  the  Sacraments  not  as  the 


THE   "GREAT   AWAKENING."  145 

marks  and  badges  of  a  pious  life  already  attained,  but 
as  the  means  of  attainment  thereto.  It  makes  little  of 
experiences.  It  is  distrustful  of  spiritual  cataclysms. 
It  thinks  that  religious  life  to  be  most  liealthy  which  is 
least  self-conscious.  It  refuses  to  distinguish  between 
religion  and  morality,  deeming  them  the  same  in  es- 
sence. 

For  all  this  the  Church  has  stood  since  the  middle  of 
the  last  century.  The  two  contrasted  conceptions  of 
personal  religion,  of  course,  did  not  begin  at  that  date. 
But  the  effect  of  the  Great  Awakening  was  to  bring 
out  their  contrast  before  the  popular  sense,  and  to  fix 
the  Church's  [)lace  as  the  representative  of  the  latter. 
Her  growth  has  always  been  most  rapid  in  those  com- 
munities where  the  rival  theory  has  most  completely 
,    .  ^  run  its  course.     But  she  has  not  remained 

Its  influence 

upon  the  uninfluenced  by  it.  Much  of  the  real  re- 
ligious life  which  was  present  in  the  move- 
ment passed  into  her  possession.  It  has  saved  her  from 
being  hard  and  mechanical.  Tlie  Evangelical  movement 
whicli  came  two  generations  afterwards  brought  into 
her  ministry  men  who  accepted  Edwards's  theory  wholly, 
preached  it,  lived  ])y  it,  championed  it,  faulted  the 
Church  for  not  accepting  it  outright,  were  as  great 
and  as  good  as  any  prophets  who  have  ever  delivered 
their  message  from  her  pulpits.  But  as  a  school  they 
passed  away  and  left  the  Church  in  the  same  attitude 
in  which  they  found  her.  The  spirit  of  the  Great 
Awakening  speaks  in  some  of  tlie  Church's  hymns, 
modifies  her  practice  in  deciding  upon  the  fitness  of 
candidates  for  Confirmation,  leads  her  often  to  adopt  a 


146       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

popular  phraseology  which  does  not  mean  the  same 
from  her  lips  that  it  does  from  others ;  but,  upon  the 
whole,  her  ideal  of  the  Christian  life  has  remained 
unchanged. 

Here  is  to  be  found  the  secret  of  her  steady  growth 
at  the  expense  of  American  Protestantism.  The  Epis- 
copal Church  is  the  only  one  which  constantly  gains 
from  others,  and  seldom  loses  to  them.  They  who  lose, 
in  their  chagrin,  often  charge  her  with  holding  a  low 
and  easily  attained  standard  of  religious  life.  This  is 
not  the  explanation.  Her  accessions  are  from  those 
whose  religious  life  is  highest  and  deepest,  but  whose 
spiritual  experience  refuses  to  fit  itself  to  the  mould 
into  which  it  is  attempted  to  cast  it.  These,  who  seek 
righteousness  of  life,  and  are  tortured  as  Edwards's 
poor  people  were  through  their  feelings,  seek  the  Church 
as  the  home  of  reasonable  religion.^ 

1  It  would  be  an  interesting  study  to  trace  the  effect  of  the  Great 
Awakening  upon  the  negro  race  in  America.  There  is  good  reason  to 
believe  that  their  peculiar  type  of  emotional  religiousness,  divorced  from 
the  sanctions  of  conscience,  is  due  to  this  movement,  which  for  the  first 
time  brought  within  their  reach  a  conception  of  Christianity  which  fitted 
itself  to  their  peculiar  race  temperament.  There  does  not  seem  to  be 
any  evidence  of  their  characteristic  type  of  religion  previous  to  this  time. 
Since  then  it  has  dominated  them  as  a  people 


THE   GERMANS.  147 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   GERMANS. 

While  the  Commissaries  were  reforming  the  Church 
in  the  south,  notable  scholars  coming  to  her  aid  in  the 
east,  and  the  Great  Awakening  was  stirring  the  re- 
ligious life  of  the  whole  land,  the  last  great  wave  of 
pre-Revolutionary  immigration  broke  over  the  middle 
colonies.  It  came  from  two  quarters,  Germany  and 
Ireland.  It  brought  in  two  great  populations,  one  of 
whom  has  always  remained  indifferent  and  the  other 
opposed  to  Episcopacy. 

The  ceaseless  wars  which  became  inevitable  on  the 
Continent  of  Europe  when  the  Reformation  motto  ct/jus 
First  German  '^^9^0->  ^i"^  relk/io,  was  adopted,  had  wrought 
immigration,  incalculable  damage  in  German}-.  The  con- 
dition of  the  common  people  was  deplorable.  While 
the  country  was  prolific  of  great  scholars  and  leaders  of 
the  Reformation,  the  mass  of  the  people  retained  much 
of  their  media3val  barbarism.  The  feudal  spirit  which 
made  his  people  patient  of  the  great  Frederick's  cane, 
and  still  keeps  the  citizens  of  a  mighty  empire  docile 
under  the  personal  rule  of  the  Kaiser,  made  the  common 
folk  then  helpless  to  rise  out  of  their  low  state.  Con- 
tinual wars,  changes  of  rule,  changes  of  faith,  bad 
government,  made    their   lives    intolerable.^     Like  the 

1  Seebohm  :  Era  of  Protestant  Revolution,  p.  33. 


148       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

unfortunate  in  all  lands  they  turned  their  faces  to 
America.  In  the  last  years  of  the  seventeenth  cent- 
ury they  began  to  come.  The  bulk  of  them  came  to 
Penn's  colony.  Through  his  German  mother  and  his 
own  sojourn  at  Cresheim  on  the  Rhine,  Penn  knew 
them  and  they  knew  him.  In  1683  Pastorius  brought 
the  first  detachment  of  twenty  families,  sat  down  Avith 
them  six  miles  from  Philadelphia,  and  properly  named 
the  first  German  settlement  Germantown.^  A  few  re- 
cruits followed  from  time  to  time,  but  thirty  years  later 
immigration  came  en  masse.  In  1709  a  hoi'rible  famine 
wasted  their  fatherland.  Thousands  perished  of  cold 
and  hunger.^  The  heart  of  the  world,  which  at  that 
time  was  not  easily  moved  at  the  sight  of  suffering, 
turned  toward  the  poor,  dying  creatures  with  compas- 
sion. Good  Queen  Anne  of  England  offered  to  give  them 
lands  and  homes  in  America  and  to  help  them  move. 
Multitudes  took  her  at  her  word.  Thirty  thousand 
made  their  way  to  London  to  escape  starvation  through 
the  queen's  goodness.^  So  many  additional  hungry 
mouths  threatened  to  set  up  a  famine  there.  The 
brutal  populace  of  the  city  fell  upon  them  in  their  poor 
camp  at  Blackmoor,  beat  them,  drove  them  off  to  beg 
and  starve  among  the  lanes  and  hedges.  Five  thousand 
of  them,  being  Roman  Catholics,  were  sent  back  to  Ger- 
many. Four  thousand  were  sent  to  Ireland  to  settle 
waste  lands  about  Limerick.  The  remainder,  more  than 
twenty  thousand  in  number,  were  sent  to  America.  Ten 
ships  brought  five  thousand  of  them  to  New  York  at  one 

'  Reicliel :  Moravian  History,  y>.  15. 
2  lb.  p.  15. 
8  lb.  p.  16. 


THE   GERMANS.  149 

time.  They  were  carried  up  the  Hudson  and  moved 
in  behind  the  Dutch,  who  had  lived  for  half  a  century 
on  its  western  bank.^  Their  descendants  are  still  found 
about  Scoharie,  Schenectady,  Palatine  Bridge,  and  west- 
ward to  the  head-waters  of  the  Susquehanna.  But  the 
main  stream  came  up  the  Delaware.     Phil- 

The  "Penn-  i    i    ,  •  i     •  a  ti    c  i 

syivania  atlelpliia  was  then'  entre})ot.  Before  the 
Dutch.  middle  of  the  century  the  immigration  had 

reached  and  sustained  itself  for  several  years  at  twelve 
thousand  annually .^  Tliey  moved  in  })ehind  the  Eng- 
lish and  Welsh  and  sat  down  upon  the  rich  limestone  soil 
which  stretches  westward  to  the  Susquehanna.  From 
Pennsylvania  they  crept  southward  into  Virginia  and 
western  jMaryland.  A  smaller,  independent  stream 
flowed  into  North  Cai'olina  and  farther  soutli.^  At 
the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  they  constituted  one- 
third  the  population  of  Pennsylvania.'^  Their  religious 
and  social  condition  was  of  the  very  lowest.  Ignorant 
when  they  left  home,  their  exposure  and  suffering 
reduced  them  still  lower.  Many  of  them  came  as 
"  Redemptioners,"  that  is,  persons  who  had  sold  them- 
selves either  outright  or  for  a  limited  number  of  years 
to  some  shipmaster  for  the  amount  of  their  passage 
money.  The  advertisement  pages  of  the  dingy  news- 
papers of  the  time  are  full  of  notices  of  rewards  for  run- 
away ''Dutch  servants."  They  were  harshly  treated, 
and  upon  the  smallest  excuse  or  no  excuse  at  all  had 
their  time  of  servitude  lengthened  until  many  became 
hopeless  bond  slaves. 

1  Smith  :  History  of  New  York,  p.  139. 

2  Proud:  History  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  ii.  p.  273. 

*  Williamson:  History  of  North  Carolina,  vol.  i.  p.  184. 

*  Proud:  History  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  ii.  p.  27j. 


150       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

From  a  religious  point  of  view  they  were  all  classified 
as  "  Lutherans."  The  distinction  whicli  the  Germans 
Their  reiig-  began  early  to  make  between  Lutherans  and 
ter^an/ con-  Reformed  was  not  observed  by  English-speak- 
dition.  [Yig  people  in  describing  them.     The  various 

German  sects  were  in  popular  speech  lumped  together 
as  Lutherans,  that  is,  Germans  who  were  not  Romanists. 
With  the  exception  of  the  few  leaders,  and  leading 
German  families  who  were  broadly  marked  off  from 
the  rank  and  file  of  their  people,  the  mass  were  for  the 
most  part  indifferent  to  religion  in  any  form.  The  few 
preachers  who  at  first  accompanied  their  flocks  grad- 
ually found  their  graves  in  the  western  wilds,  or  if  yet 
living,  their  influence  on  new-comers  was  very  slight. 
There  were  thousands,  who,  educated  in  Germany  as 
Lutherans,  but  now  scattered  about  in  the  forep't  wilds 
of  America,  never  saw  a  church  or  cared  for  it.  Many 
were  so  utterly  indifferent  to  all  religion  that  it  becamo 
proverbial  to  say  of  those  who  cared  nothing  for  God  oi 
His  Word,  that  they  belonged  to  "the  Pennsylvania 
Church."  ^  The  chronic  tendency  of  German  Protest' 
autism  to  division  made  their  religious  condition  worse. 
They  became  a  congeries  of  sects,  some  of  them  holding 
as  their  distinguishing  mark  the  most  grotesque  and 
whimsical  practice  or  tenet.  The  mystical  "  Mennonite  " 
would  not  allow  the  baptism  of  infants,  would  not  take 
an  oath,  refused  to  bear  arms,  and  wore  a  peculiar  dress. 
The  "  Tunkers  "  held  to  the  same  theological  and 
ethical  views,  but  wore  a  different  dress,  and  made  it  a 
point  of  faith  to  wear  their  beards  untouched  by  blade 

1  Spaugenbei'g :  Life  of  Ziuzendorf,  p.  1230. 


THE   GERMANS.  151 

or  scissors.  The  "Siebentagen  "  observed  the  seventh 
day  of  the  week  instead  of  the  first  to  keep  it  holy, 
denounced  marriage  as  a  snare  of  Satan,  lived  in  com- 
munity, established  an  order  of  Protestant  monks  and 
nuns,  and  built  for  themselves  monasteries,  the  broken 
walls  of  whicli  still  stand. ^  Anchorites  lived  solitary 
lives  far  in  the  forest,  and  hermits  made  their  homes  in 
the  rocky  caves  along  the  Wissahickon.  Besides  these, 
Schwenkfelders  and  separatists  of  now  forgotten  names 
abounded.  Their  type  may  be  seen  in  one  sect  which 
still  exists,  whose  distinctive  dogma  is  that  men  should 
wear  hooks  and  eyes  instead  of  buttons  to  fasten  their 
clothes  I 

The  numbers  and  character  of  the  incoming  Germans 
seriously  alarmed  the  colonial  authorities,  and,  after 
a  prolonged  agitation,  it  was  checked  and  ultimately 
stopped  by  the  imposition  of  a  tax  of  forty  shillings  a 
head  upon  all  comers.  But  before  this  was  done  the 
Germans  who  are  now  known  as  "  Pennsylvania  Dutch" 
had  established  themselves  in  a  circle  of  settlements 
which  surrounded  the  Church  of  England  at  those 
points  where  it  was  strongest.  There  they  have  remained 
ever  since.  They  have  preserved  their  original  features 
of  character  and  religious  life  with  a  tenacity  which 
hardly  any  other  class  in  America  can  equal.  Simple- 
minded  and  coarse  in  fibre,  but  strong  and  pertinacious, 
they  have  held  their  own,  and  the  Church  has  made  but 
little  impress  upon  them.  With  the  exception  of  the 
great  and  saintly  Muhlenbergs,  and  a  few  others  of  kin- 
dred spirit,  their  names  are  absent  from  her  rolls. 

1  At  EpUrata,  Lancaster  Co.,  Peun. 


152       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

The  Moravian  Church  came  among  them  at  a  later 
date,  and  has  since  held  in  their  midst  mnch  the  same 
The  Mora-  P^^^^  ^^^^^  ^^^®  Episcopal  Church  has  among 
vians.  the  English-speaking  Protestants.     It,  though 

small  in  numbers,  has  probably  affected  the  religious  life 
of  America  more  profoundly,  though'  indirectly,  than 
have  the  vastly  more  numerous  German  Lutheran  and 
Reformed.  Bishop  Nitschman,  in  Savannah,  became  the 
teacher  of  the  Churchman  John  Wesley.  The  Moravian 
Peter  Bohler,  as  we  shall  see,  gave  him  that  cast  of 
religious  life  which  made  him  the  founder  of  Methodism. 
Whitefield  was  their  friend  and  co-worker.  He  bought 
for  them  five  thousand  acres  of  land  at  the  forks  of  the 
Delaware  to  found  a  school  for  negroes,  which  was  to 
be  administered  by  them,i  and  then  quarrelled  with 
them  and  took  the  land  away.  But  he  retained  that 
bias  which  his  intercourse  with  Peter  Bohler  had  given 
him,  and,  during  his  restless  wanderings  up  and  down 
the  colonies,  was  more  under  the  domination  of  the 
Moravian  than  the  English  Church. 

1  Reicliel :  Moravian  History,  p.  78. 


THE   SCOTCH-IKISH.  153 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE   SCOTCH  IKISH. 

At  the  period  of  the  Reformation  England  and  Scot- 
hind  were  two  separate  nations,  as  distinct  as  the  United 
England  and  States  and  Canada  now  are.  Enghmd  had 
Scotland  at     throuo-h  her   whole  history  resisted,  and  in 

the  Rofor-  ^ 

mation.  the    end    beat    off,    the    aggressions    of    the 

Papacy.  Scotland  had  succundjed  almost  entirely. 
When  the  time  came,  the  Reformation  had  more  to  do 
in  Scotland,  had  to  do  it  by  a  harder  battle,  against 
greater  odds,  in  the  face  of  established  anthorities,  re- 
ligious and  secular,  and  through  a  far  more  bitter  experi- 
ence, than  fell  to  the  lot  of  her  neighbor.  In  England 
the  king  and  officers  of  state,  the  bishops  and  leading 
clergy,  led  the  movement.  In  Scotland  all  these  opposed 
it.  In  England  Episcopacy  emerged  from  the  long 
sti-uggle  intact.  In  Scotland  it  went  down  before  the 
people's  determination  to  reform,  which  purpose  the 
bishops  opposed.  The  Reformed  Church  of  Scotland 
never  forgot  that  the  bishops  had  joined  hands  with  the 
Papal  enemy. 

Wishart  and  Knox  brought  into  it  the  Calvinism  and 

Presbyterianism  which  they  had   learned  at 

and'pres'by-     Basle  and  Frankfort  and  Geneva  in  the  days 

terianism.       ^£  ^j^^j^.  ^^q^^     ^]^g  ^^y^n  system  of  Dogma 

and  Organization  struck  its  roots    in  the  very  fabric 


154       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IX   THE   COLONIES. 

of  the  Scottish  mind  and  character.  It  has  lived  there 
a  more  vigorous  and  tenacious  life  than  elsewhere  in 
the  workl.  When  it  liad  decayed  at  Geneva  it  flour- 
ished at  Edinburgh.  When  it  had  become  loosened 
and  capable  of  revision  there,  it  is  found  in  its  pristine 
strength  at  Pittsburg.  When  the  Protestant  Revolu- 
tion had  subsided,  Episcopacy  had  been  rooted  out  in 
Scotland,  and  the  soil  where  it  had  grown  sown  with 
the  salt  of    Calvinism.     When  the    two  crowns  were 

united  in  that  of  James   I,  there  began  that 

Presbyterian-  " 

ism  and  long  struggle  for  supremacy  between  the  tv/o 

peoples  whose  history  had  been  so  diverse. 
The  match  was  not  conspicuously  unequal.  The  advan- 
tage which  the  more  numerous  population  of  England 
gave  her  was  counterbalanced  by  the  profound  conviction 
and  fierce  tenacity  of  purpose  which  marked  the  Scotch. 
The  stake  at  issue  was  the  control  of  the  ecclesiastical 
organization  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  issue  was  by 
no  means  a  foregone  conclusion.  If  the  English  won 
when  swords  and  muskets  were  the  weapons,  the  Scotch 
knew  how  to  "  jouk  an'  let  the  jaw  go  by,"  and  gain 
their  end  by  cautious  and  patient  diplomacy.  Once,  at 
least,  they  succeeded  in  having  the  "  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant "  against  prelacy  sworn  to  by  monarch  and 
parliament,  and  Presbyterianism  made  the  law  of  the 
land.  But  the  southern  half  of  the  kingdom  steadily 
outgrew  the  northern,  and  in  the  long  run  luimbers  tell. 
Presbyterianism  was  beaten  back  beyond  the  border ; 
Episcopacy  crossed  in  pursuit,  by  the  same  path  upon 
which  the  Covenant  had  once  come  southward.  The 
ecclesiastical  authority  of  the  realm  set  about  to  exter- 


THE   8COTCIl-IRI8n.  155 

minate  Presbyterianisni,  as  it,  in  its  turn,  had  attacked 
Episcopacy. 

In  the  contest  from  this  time  onward  the  weight  of 
suffering  fell  upon  the  Scotch.  It  was  a  game  of  ham- 
Episcopal  "lei"  ^^^^^  anvil,  and  the  English  wielded  the 
^^sor.  hammer.     In  the  last  quarter  of  the  seven- 

teenth century  the  Scotch  Presbyterian's  life  was  a 
burden  to  him.  "Uniformity"  acts,  "Test"  acts,  "Con- 
venticle "  acts,  entangled  him  at  every  turn.  It  was  a 
felony  to  worship  otherwise  than  by  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer,  to  conduct  family  worship  when  more  than 
five  beside  the  household  were  present,  to  preach  with- 
out permission  of  the  bishop,  to  boggle  at  abjuring  the 
Covenant  which  the  Presbyterian  held  sacred,  to  absent 
one's  self  from  the  parish  church.  All  synods,  presbyter- 
ies, and  sessions  were  declared  illegal.  A  new  hierarchy 
was  set  up,  with  a  renegade  Presbyterian  at  its  head. 
Ignorant  and  godless  priests  were  set  in  charge  of  the 
churches.^  The  laws  were  enforced  by  sequestrations, 
fines,  the  gaol,  the  stocks,  boot,  thumbscrews,  pillory, 
and  the  gallows.  But  all  in  vain.  The  stern  stuff  of 
which  Scotch  Presbyterianisni  was  made  finally  pre- 
vailed, and  the  Presbytery  became  established  north  of 
the  Tweed. 

Meanwhile  many  to  whom  life  had  become  intoler- 
able sought  refuge  in  Ireland,  then  a  sort  of  No-man's- 
Emigration  1^^^*^^-  ^  sheriff's  writ  could  hardly  cross 
to  Ireland.  ^]jg  Channel,  and  the  moss  troopers  were  not 
there  to  harry  them.  They  were  welcomed  as  thrifty 
tenants  upon  the  large,  half-waste  tracts  held  by  Eng- 

1  Burnet:  History  of  His  Own  Time,  i.  p.  229. 


loG       THE   ENGLISH   CIU^KCII   IN   THE  COLONIES. 

lish  land-owners.  But  as  the  civilization  of  the  island 
increased,  its  whilom  obscurity  ceased  to  shelter  them. 
The  same  contest  of  argument  and  arms  between  the 
bishops  and  the  Presbyterians,  which  had  wasted  Scot- 
land, sprang  up  in  Ireland.  The  bitterest  theological 
controversies,  diversified  by  passages  at  arms,  occupied 
a  whole  generation.  Finally  it  embittered  the  relations 
between  land-owning  Churchmen  and  the  Presbyterian 
tenantry.  The  "  Antrim  Evictions  "  left  thousands  of 
them  without  home  or  shelter.  In  two  years  thirty 
thousand  emigrated  to  America.^  They  found  many  of 
their  kin  already  here.  The  prisoners  taken  at  Dunbar 
and  Bothwell  Brig  fifty  j^ears  before  had  been  sold  as 
slaves  to  the  plantations.^  Scotch  noblemen  and  gen- 
tlemen had  bought  large  lands  for  their  fellow-religion- 
ists in  South  Carolina.  There  were  settlements  of  them 
Emigration  ^^^  Virginia  and  Maryland.  But  at  the  open- 
to  America,  ^j^g  ^f  ^]^q  eighteenth  century  they  began  to 
come  in  like  a  flood.  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  Charles- 
ton were  the  principal  places  of  entr3^  Of  these,  Phila- 
delphia was  the  favorite.  Whole  congregations  came, 
brino'ina'  their  ministers  with  them.  "In  the  first  half 
of  the  century,  Down,  Antrim,  Armagh,  and  Derry  were 
emptied."  ^  In  1740  the  immigration  had  reached  twelve 
thousand  a  year  to  Philadelphia  alone.*  They  halted 
but  a  little  at  the  seaboard,  but  passed  at  once  through 
the  coast  settlements,  and  took  possession  of  the  frontier. 
In  the  fertile  valley  of  the   Mohawk,  the   rich,  rolling 

'  Craighead:  Scotch  and  Irish  Seeds  in  American  Soil,  p.  274. 

2  Ihid.,  p.  2(;G. 

3  Froude:  History  of  Ireland,  vol.  i.  p  129. 

••  Hodge:  History  of  the  Preshyteriau  Church,  p.  5L 


THE   SCOTCH-IRISH.  157 

land  of  the  Susquehanna,  the  long,  trough-like  valleys 
which  lie  among  the  eastern  ranges  of  the  AUeghanies, 
in  the  uplands  of  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  the  Carolinas, 
they  established  their  homes.  They  were  a  profoundly 
religious  people.  With  a  spirit  like,  and  yet  unlike,  the 
Puritan  settlers  of  New  England,  they  have  left  their 
impress  indelibly  upon  American  religion.  The  upper- 
Hostiiitvto  "^ost  feeling  in  their  minds,  when  they  came, 
the  Church,  ^yas  liatred  of  Episcopacy,  whether  in  its 
Romish  or  its  English  guise.  Their  fathers  had  chal- 
lenged it  to  mortal  combat  a  century  before,  and  in  their 
own  time  the  battle  had  gone  against  them.  In  the 
early  j^ears  of  the  last  century  there  were  Scotch  Pres- 
byterians living  here  whose  ears  had  been  cut  off  by 
"  Kirke's  lambs ;  "  who.se  fathers  had  been  hung  before 
their  eyes  for  attending  conventicles ;  whp  had  worn  the 
boot  and  thumbkins  while  Leslie  stood  by  and  jeered ; 
who  had  been  hunted  away  from  their  burning  homes 
by  that  polished  gentleman  and  stanch  Churchman, 
John  Graham,  of  Claverhouse  ;  ministers  who  had  been 
browbeaten  by  Irish  bishops,  and  denied  sympathy  even 
by  the  gentle  Jeremy  Taylor,^  had  been  turned  out  of 
their  livings,  fined,  imprisoned,  their  ministerial  office 
derided,  the  children  of  the  marriages  they  celebrated 
pronounced  bastards.  A  deep  and  sullen  hatred  of  the 
Cliurch  which  they  regarded  as  the  author  of  their 
wrongs  was  part  of  the  furniture  which  they  brought 
here  with  them.  They  were  not  likely  to  consider  that 
they  themselves  were  animated  by  a  similar  spirit,  and, 
the  opportunity  being  given,  would  have  reversed  the 

1  Craigliead:  p.  225. 


158       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

parts  ill  the  tragedy.  In  point  of  fact,  the  opportunit}/ 
had  not  been  given,  and  so  things  were  as  they  were. 
The  sober  judgment  of  the  world  is  now  made  up  that 
the  Church  lost  far  more  than  slie  won  by  the  methods 
then  adopted.  The  fair-minded  and  candid  Hallam 
well  says,  ''  It  was  very  possible  that  Episcopacy  was  of 
divine  institution,  but  for  this  institution  houses  had 
been  burned  and  fields  laid  waste,  the  gospel  had  been 
preached  in  the  fields,  and  its  ministers  shot  at  their 
prayers.  It  was  a  religion  of  the  boot  and  thumbscrew, 
which  a  good  man  must  be  very  cold-blooded  indeed  if 
he  did  not  hate  and  reject  from  the  hands  which  offered 
it.  For,  after  all,  it  is  much  more  certain  that  God 
abhors  cruelty  and  persecution  than  it  is  that  He  has 
set  up  bishops  to  have  a  superiority  over  presbyters."  ' 
At  the  end  of  the  period  now  before  us,^  the 

A  cordon 

round  the  Scotch-Irish  had  established  a  cordon  in  the 
rear  of  the  Church,  whose  seat  was  on  the 
seaboard,  reaching  from  Londonderry  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  following  the  foot-hills  of  the  Alleghanies,  to 
Georgia.  They  gave  the  religious  tone  to  the  life  which 
was  j)reparing  to  start  with  leaps  and  bounds  across  the 
mighty  West.  They  made  the  first  inroads  into  the 
wilderness  "  over  the  mountains."  They  planted  in 
the  new  settlements  the  seed  of  liostility,  or,  at  the  best, 
dislike  of  the  Church  and  her  ways.  They  repaid  with 
interest  the  grudge  they  owed  her  for  her  part  in  their 
fathers'  quarrel. 

But  at  the  same  time  they  became,  unwittingly,  her 

1  Constitutional  History,  vol.  iii.  p.  435. 

2  From  1700  to  the  War  of  Independence. 


THE   SCOTCH-IRISH.  159 

bulwark  against  the  savage  Indians  and  the  Roman 
Catholic  French.  In  the  long  and  bloody  French  wars 
they  bore  the  brunt.  Behind  the  rampart  they  formed, 
the  Church  pursued  her  course  in  peace.  When  she 
had  grown  strong  enough,  in  the  next  century,  she 
moved  out  side  by  side  with  her  ancient  enemies,  whose 
hostility  had  then  abated,  to  possess  the  land  of  the 
West.  For  a  while  the  Presbyterians  stood  sturdily 
with  the  Church  against  the  enthusiasm  of  the  "  Great 
Awakening,"  and  for  the  high  Church  and  Sacramenta- 
rian  ideas  they  had  brought  with  tliem,i  but  in  the  end 
they  succumbed  to  its  influence.^   From  them 

Influence 

upon  the  rather  than  from  the  Puritans  have  come,  for 
example,  the  popular  judgment  as  to  the 
proper  observance  of  the  Lord's  Dav,  and  the  attitude 
of  the  individual  Christian  towards  amusements  and 
recreations.  These  notions  have,  in  turn,  unconsciously 
and  unavoidably  affected  the  practice  of  Church  people 
in  these  regards.^  The  Church  has  caught  from  them 
also  a  certain  seriousness  of  religious  life  and  careful- 
ness of  personal  conduct,  for  which  she  owes  a  debt. 
On  the  other  hand,  this  debt  has  been  more  than  repaid 
by  the  company  of  recruits  which  they  have  constantl}' 
furnished  to  her  membership.  Bishops,  priests,  and 
laymen,  the  roll  of  whose  names  would  fill  a  book,  have 
come  to  the  Episcopal  Church  from  conviction  of  her 
better  ways,  who  have  never  lost  their  kind  good-will 
to  their  old  Presbytei-ian  liome. 

1  The  definitions  of  the  Sacraments  in  tlie  "  Confession  of  Faith"  are 
such  as  would  satisfy  the  very  highest  Cliurcliman. 
'-  Briggs:  American  Presbyterianism,  pp.  249,  250,  252. 
3  Canon  XIV.,  1789. 


160       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE   METHODISTS.     ' 

We  come  now  to  notice  the  first  of  American  born 
sects.  Heretofore  the  successive  waves  of  immigration 
which  we  have  traced,  each  carried  its  own  type  of  re- 
ligion, and  threw  it  down  as  a  deposit.  These  suc- 
cessive deposits  constitute  the  primary  ecclesiastical 
stratification  of  American  life.  Methodism  shows  itself 
not  as  an  additional  stratum,  but  as  a  great  geological 
"  fault "  or  break.  As  a  sect  it  was  organized  and 
besfan  its  independent  life  here.     Its  growth 

The  first  ^  ^  ,     ,  i        i  •  i 

American  and  Spread  has  probably  been  more  rapid 
^^*''"  than  that  of  any  religious  organization  within 

the  Christian  era.  It  was  launched  from  the  deck  of 
the  Church  of  England.  In  its  first  stages  its  growth 
was  from  those  who  had  always  called  themselves  the 
Church's  members.  It  was  built,  equipped,  and  manned 
by  the  Church's  oflicers  and  crew.  When  it  parted 
from  her  it  bore  away  a  multitude  of  her  company. 
Methodism  began  its  course  in  America  at  precisely 
that  juncture  when  Episcopacy  was  at  its  lowest  point, 
both  in  efficiency  and  in  the  good-will  of  the  people ; 
at  the  time  when  the  Church's  hands  were  tied  most 
rigidly  by  the  bonds  which  bound  her  to  the  English 
state.  While  she  was  fettered  and  impotent,  Methodism 
came,  "a  system  energetic,  migratory,  itinerant,  extem- 


THE   METHODISTS.  161 

pore,  like  the  population  itself,"  ^  fitted  itself  at  once  to 
the  new  condition  of  things,  and  started  immediately 
upon  its  extraordinary  growth. 

What,  then,  was  Methodism  ?  What  is  it  ?  How  has 
it  affected  the  Church  in  America? 

To  answer  the  first  of  these  questions,  as  in  the  case 
of  Quakerism,  the  life  and  spirit  of  its  founder  must  be 
examined. 

In  1729  thoughtful  men  in  England  were  seriously 

alarmed  at  what  seemed  likely  to  prove  a  permanent 

eclipse  of  faith.^     It  api)eared  as  thougrh  the 

Its  origin.  ^  ^  * 

power  of  evil  were  about  to  triumph.  The 
light  of  the  Reformation,  as  they  looked  back  upon  it, 
seemed  to  them  to  have  been  only  the  flaring  up  of  the 
torch  before  going  out  into  darkness.  Here  and  there 
the  godly  men  who  saw  the  evil  of  the  day  drew  to- 
gether in  little  groups  to  plan  and  pray  for  better 
things.  Tliese  little  societies  were  jeered  at  as  "  Holy 
Clubs,"  "  Sacramentarians,"  the  "  righteous."  ^  Such  a 
club  existed  at  Oxford.  Half  a  dozen  fellows  and 
undergraduates  composed  it.  Its  leading  spirits  were 
Charles  and  John  Wesley,  two  clergymen  of  the 
Methodists  Church  of  England.  The  purpose  of  the 
the  first  club  was  the  revival  of  spiritual  life  in  the 

Ritualists." 

Church.  To  this  end  they  observed  with 
the  utmost  punctiliousness  all  the  Church's  rules  and 
precepts.     Tliey  Avere  all  Ritualists.*     They  were  cir- 

1  Stevens:  History  of  American  Methodism,  p.  22. 

2  Churchman's  Life  of  Wesley,  p.  14.  ' 

3  Ih.  p.  15. 

*  "The  Oxford  Methodists,  up  to  the  time  of  their  general  dispersion, 
were  al.  Church  of  England  Ritualists."  Tyerman:  The  Oxford  Meth- 
odists, p.  5. 


162       THE   ENGLISH   CHUItCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

cumspect  in  life,  studious,  charitable,  earnest-minded. 
Every  morning  and  evening  they  spent  an  hour  in 
private  prayer.  They  communicated  at  Christ  Church 
once  a  week.  Every  Wednesday  and  Friday  they 
fasted  till  three  o'clock.^  They  believed  and  taught  the 
Real  Presence  in  the  Holy  Eucharist ;  used  the  mixed 
chalice ;  the  eastward  position ;  held  to  apostolic  suc- 
cession ;  baptism  by  immersion  ;  prayers  for  the  dead ; 
and  something  which  looked  like  invocation  of  Saints. 
They  dreamed  of  a  revival  of  the  primitive  Church  as 
it  was  in  the  days  of  the  fathers.  For  their  punctilious- 
ness they  were  dubbed  "  Methodists."  The  masterful 
character  of  John  Wesley  quickly  came  to  dominate 
the  others.  Except  for  his  connection  with  this  Church 
revival  it  would  probably  have  been  forgotten  long  ago. 
The  ecclesiasticism  of  it  left  its  impress  upon  one  side 
of  Wesley's  character  which  it  retained  all  his  life ;  but 
his  following  attached  itself  to  him  upon  another  side, 
which  wa^  later  to  be  developed. 

When  Oglethorpe  had  marshalled  his  motley  col- 
ony for  Georgia,  he  secured  Charles  Wesley  for  its 
TheWesieys  chaplain.  His  brother  John  determined  to 
in  Georgia.  g.^  along  as  a  missionary  to  the  Indians  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  new  plantation.  He  was  com- 
missioned l)y  the  S.  P.  G.  for  the  work.  The  expedi- 
tion to  which  he  was  attached  landed  at  Savannah  in 
173(3.  The  work  among  the  Indians  was  quickly  found 
to  be  impracticable,  and  no  serious  effort  seems  to  have 
been  made  to  pursue  it.  In  its  default,  Wesley  became 
the   minister   in   charge  of   Christ   C^hurch,   Savannah, 

■  Tyerman:  The  Oxford  Methodists,  pp.  vi,  G6. 


THE   METHODISTS.  163 

There  he  began  at  once  to  cany  into  practice  his  pro- 
nounced ideas  of  church  order  and  discipline.  He 
multiplied  services  ;  emphasized  the  fast  and  feast 
days  of  the  Church  ;  refused  to  allow  parents  to  stand, 
and  insisted  that  none  but  communicants  could  be 
sponsors  ;  insisted  upon  baj^tism  by  immersion  as  being 
the  primitive  mode  ;  repelled  from  the  Holy  Commun- 
ion all  who  had  not  been  baptized  by  an  episcopally 
ordained  minister  ;  insisted  upon  making  priestly  inqui- 
sition into  the  lives  of  all  who  offered  to  come  to  the 
Lord's  Table.  No  place  more  ill  adapted  to  his 
rubrical  rigor  could  have  been  found  than  the  Georgia 
colony  was.  He  quickly  estranged  his  people  by  his 
malapropos  zeal.  From  estrangement,  the  feelino- 
against  him  soon  passed  into  active  hostility.  This 
was  carried  to  its  summit  by  Wesley's  folly  in  con- 
nection with  a  young  woman  of  his  parisli.  He  be- 
came enamoured  of  a  Miss  Hopke,  declared  his  love, 
was  kindly  received,  and  believed  that  Miss  Hoj^ke  had 
T  V.  w   ,       promised     to    marry    him.      She,    however, 

John  Wesley      ^  ''      .  ' 

and  Miss  thought  differently,  and  married  another 
man.  Wesle3%  instead  of  pocketing  his 
chagrin  like  a  man,  chose  to  bear  himself  in  the  matter 
like  a  priest.  If  he  was  not  the  young  lady's  husband, 
he  was  at  any  rate  her  spiritual  pastor  and  master.  In 
this  latter  capacity  he  determined  to  discipline  her  for 
the  affront  which  she  had  put  upon  him  as  a  man.  He 
excommunicated  her  for  the  double-dealing  which  he 
alleged  and  believed  she  had  been  guilty  of  in  the  affair. 
His  conduct  in  the  premises  was  more  than  the  Savan- 
nah people,  already  irritated  against  him,  could  endure. 


164       THE   ENGLISH   CIIUKCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

Miss  Hopke's  uncle,  Mr.  C'austeii,  a  rich  and  prominent 
citizen,  and  a  hot-tempered  and  vindictive  man,  took  up 
her  quarrel,  and  led  the  popular  anger  against  Wesley. 
The  storm  was  too  fierce  to  stand  against.  Wesley  was 
compelled  to  flee.  In  company  with  a  single  friend,  he 
escaped  through  the  swamps,  lost  his  way,  lay  down 
exhausted,  was  resuscitated  by  the  exhibition  of  a  piece 
of  gingerbread  which  his  friend  had  fortunately  carried 
with  him,  made  his  way,  more  dead  than  alive,  to 
Beaufort,  and  sailed  away  to  England. 

On  his  way  out  to  Georgia  there  had  chanced  to  be  a 
little  band  of  Moravians  on  the  same  ship  with  him. 
Wesley  had  been  deeply  impressed  with  the 
the  Mora-        manner   and   spirit    of    their   religious   life, 
vians.  They   had   seemed    to    possess   a   secret    of 

spiritual  peace  which  he  had  not.  They  invited  him, 
if  ever  he  should  have  the  opportunity,  to  visit  the 
home  of  their  Church  at  Hernhutt.  When  he  went 
back  to  England,  having  failed  to  do  his  work  among 
the  Indians,  and  more  than  failed  with  the  Savannah 
whites,  disappointed  and  discredited,  he  made  the 
intended  visit.  He  found  the  iNIoravians  to  be  of  his 
spiritual  kin.  They  recommended  him  to  the  friend- 
ship of  one  of  their  own  members,  Peter  Bolder,  then 
living  in  London.  The  mystical,  Moravian  idea  that 
the  relio-ious  life  is  in  its  essence  the  consciousness  of 
God's  presence  in  the  soul,  was  not  unfamiliar  to 
Wesley.  He  had  striven  to  realize  this  communion 
through  Sacraments  and  observances  while  he  belonged 
to  the  '"  Holy  Club."  His  intimate  association  with  that 
nonjuring    Churchman,   William    Law,    had    fixed   the 


THE   METHODISTS.  165 

same  idea  deeper  in  liis  mind.i  But  through  his  inter- 
course with  Bohler  2  he  was  led  to  that  great  experience 
which  is  the  key  not  only  to  Wesley's  work  and  char- 
acter, but  also  to  that  great  fabric  which  he  builded. 
He  records  that  on  the  24th  of  ^lay,  1738, 
'^coSr-  while  reading  Luther's  Introduction  to  the 
^'°°""  Romans,    he     Avas     suddenly     "converted." 

He  had  been  for  more  than  a  dozen  years  a  priest  and 
preacher,  a  missionary  and  a  pastor,  but,  according  to 
the  judgment  which  he  ever  afterward  adhered  to,  he  had 
never  been  a  Christian.  Tlie  absolute  necessity  of  con- 
scious "■  conversion  "  became  from  that  time  the  centre 
of  his  system.  "  By  it,"  he  says,  "  I  mean  an  inward 
impression  of  the  soul  whereby  the  Spirit  of  God  imme- 
diately and  directly  witnesses  to  my  spirit  tliat  I  am  a 
child  of  God."  3  He  was  not  the  first  who  believed  and 
taught  the  same  thing,  but  he  was  the  first  who  had 
the  power  of  sustained  enthusiasm,  the  faculty  of  man- 
aging men,  the  genius  for  organization,  Avhich  were  able 
to  build  up  about  this  central  tenet  a  mighty  ecclesias- 
tical empire. 

The  condition  of  society  which  he  confronted  was  one 
which  Avould  have  appalled  a  man  not  sustained  by  a 
Desperate  profound  belief  in  God's  presence  with  him. 
condition  of     ^^   ^-[^g    niiddle  of   the  eighteenth   century. 

raligion  in  ^     i  ^  ^       ^  j.  ^ 

England.  England  touched,  probably,  the  lowest  moi-ai 
and  religious  point  in  her  history.  During  more  than 
a  century  she  had  been  steadily  drained   of   her  most 

1  TycTuiaii:  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  i.  p.  88. 

2  Stevens:  History  of  American  Methodism,  p.  27. 

3  lb.  p.  192. 


166       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH    IX   THE   COLONIES. 

vigorous  life.  The  Puritan  emigration  had  carried 
away  tens  of  thousands  of  her  children  whose  religion, 
if  hard  and  gloomy,  was  at  any  rate  real.  The  deporta- 
tion of  the  Quakers  had  emptied  England  of  enthu- 
siasm. The  old  Elizabethan  Churchmanship  was  Avith- 
drawn  into  the  secluded  haunts  of  the  nonjurors.  The 
most  virile  and  wholesome  of  her  children  had  long 
since  gone  to  the  New  World.  What  was  left  was  inert, 
conventional,  weak,  helpless,  like  a  depleted  system, 
to   resist  the    inroads    of   miasma.      The    miasma  had 

already  risen  in  the  form  of  the  cold  and 
Deism. 

barren  deism  which  then  possessed  the  pop- 
ular mind.  Shaftesbury,  Bolingbroke,  Hume,  and 
Tyndal  were  the  teachers  who  had  the  public  ear. 
The  sordid,  debauching  reign  of  the  Georges  had  been 
established,  and  its  results  had  begun  to  show.  The 
moralities,  the  very  decencies  of  life,  were  forgotten. 
Blasphemy  became  the  mark  of  a  gentleman. ^  To 
"  swear  like  a  lord  "  was  the  height  of  the  commoner  s 
ambition.  New  and  strange  oaths  showed  a  fertile  wit. 
Gambling  was  the  serious  business  of  the  court,  and 
the  unconcealed  recreation  of  the  people.  Hogarth 
shows  the  fine  gentleman  meditating  suicide  after  being 
ruined  at  play,  and  the  street  gamins  playing  at  chuck- 
farthing  on  the  flat  tombstones  of  St.  Paul's  Church- 
yard. Gin  was  invented,  and  the  street-signs  announced 
unblushingly,  that  the  passer-by  could  get  "  drunk  for 

a  penny,  drunk,  with  clean  straw,  for  two- 

Lubricitv. 

pence."  The  lubiicity  of  the  age  matched 
its  frivolity.     j\Iost  of  its  literature  is  now,  happily,  un- 

1  Hore:  Eighteen  Centuries  of  the  Church  in  England,  p.  455. 


THE   METHODISTS.  167 

readable.  Fielding,  Smollett,  and  Sterne  have  not  been 
able  even  by  their  genius  to  rescue  it  from  its  dirt.  In 
a  literature  where  Tom  Jones,  Peregrine  Pickle,  Rod- 
erick Random,  and  Tristram  Shandy  are  the  best,  what 
must  the  worst  be  ?  Montesquieu  says  of  the  English 
of  that  day,  "  They  have  no  religion."  The  age's  own 
judgment  of  itself  appears  in  the  proposal  of  a  parlia- 
mentary bill,  offered  half  in  jest  and  wholly  in  earnest, 
"  that  the  word  not  should  l)e  struck  out  where  it 
occurs  in  the  Commandments,  and  inserted  in  the 
Creeds  !  " . 

Church  abuses  kept  pace  with  civil  ones.  A  few  rich 
and  favored  clergy  monopolized  the  livings,  and  left  the 
Ecciesiasti-  "i^ss  of  the  clergy  to  eke  out  a  miserable 
cai  abuses.  livelihood  by  questionable  services  to  godless 
patrons,!  or  as  "  Fleet  parsons."  ^  The  clergy  were  held 
in  popular  contempt,  and  were  content  to  be  so.^  A 
mitre  was  scliemed  for,  bribed  for,  begged  for,  without 
sense  of  shame.*  When  obtained  it  was  prized  for  the 
earthly  honor  it  brought,  and  not  for  the  duty  it  entailed. 
Bishops  visited  their  dioceses  when  it  comported  with 
their  more  serious  duties  at  court.  A  Welsh  bishop 
who  held  his  see  for  years  never  saw  it  in  his  life. 
Confirmations,  infrequently  held,  brought  together  the 
young  people  from  miles  around  for  a  debauch.  Thack- 
eray violates  no  probabilities  when  he  presents  the 
Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  bowing  and  smirking  in  the 

1  Abbey  and  Overton:  Cliurch  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century, 
vol.  ii.  p.  IG. 

2  lb.  ii.  p.  19. 

3  lb.  ii.  p.  20. 
■»  lb.  ii.  p.  26. 


168       THE   ENGLISH   CHUKCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

pump-room  before  the  painted,  patched,  and  powdered 
old  Duchess  of  Yarmouth,  the  king's  mistress.^  What 
was  not  prol)able  in  a  church  in  which  tlie  man  who 
"  wept  over  a  dead  donkey  and  left  his  own  mother  to 
starve,"  received  preferment  for  his  "•  Sentimental  Trav- 
eller"? The  Cluu'ch  in  that  century  had  great  men, 
gi-eat  scholars,  great  bishops,  but  they  pursued  their 
work  and  lived  their  lives  apart  from  the  people.  War- 
burton,  Wake,  Bull,  Butler,  Waterland,  and  Sherlock 
have  left  their  mark  upon  the  generations  since,  but 
failed  to  redeem  the  one  in  which  they  lived.^  This 
was  the  England  which  the  newly  converted  Wesley 
and  his  co-worker  Whitefield  confronted.  What  could 
be  done  with  it?  How  could  it  be  brought  to  a  sense 
of  God  and  to  righteousness  of  life  ? 

The  purpose  they  set  before  themselves  was  a  simple 
one.  It  was  not  to  introduce  any  machinery  of  moral 
The  Method-  fducation  or  scheme  of  reformation,  but  to 
ists' purpose.  \)i-[i^cr  each  individual  soul  into  conscious 
intercourse  with  God.  No  pi'oject  was  ever  conceived 
which  appeared  more  Quixotic.  But  they  set  about  the 
task,  and  measurably  accomplished  it.  They  began 
with  the  most  unpromising.  They  preached  to  the 
Whitefield  the  drunkards,  swearers,  and  harlots  of  Drurj^ 
preacher,  and  i^.^j^g   ^q  the  brutalized  tin-miners  of  Corn- 

Wesleythe 

organizer.  wall,  to  the  keelmen  at  Newcastle,  to  the 
begrimed  colliers  in  Kingswood  and  Staffordshire. 
About  Whitefield  especially  the  people  crowded  by  the 
thousand.     Five,  ten,  twenty,  thirty  thousand  people  in 

'  The  Virginians. 

-  Abbey  and  Overton:  vol.  ii.  p.  54. 


THE   METHODISTS.  169 

a  single  congregation  listened  to  his  marvellous  voice. 
He  preached  all  afternoon,  and  the  people  refused  to 
disperse  when  darkness  fell.  A  friend  ''held  a  torch 
beside  him,  so  that  he  could  see  his  Bible,  and  he 
preached  all  night;  when  day  broke,  ten  thousand 
people  were  standing  and  kneeling  about  him."  The 
"  converted  "  were  quickly  numbered  by  the  thousand. 
Charles  Wesley,  the  sweet  singer,  set  their  deep  emo- 
tions to  hymns.  John  Wesley,  the  born  organizer  and 
administratoi-,  gathered  together  the  isolated  individuals, 
set  them  in  " classes,"  set  over  each  class  a  "leader," 
selected  earnest  and  fluent  men,  and  sent  them  out  to 
travel  over  "  circuits,"  as  Wickliff  had  done  centuries 
before  with  his  "  poor  preachers."  He  at  once  became 
the  head  and  centre  of  the  movement,  and  remained  so 
till  it  broke  cut  of  his  hands  in  America. 

It  spread  in  his  own  lifetime  to  Scotland,  Ireland, 
the  West  Indies,  France,  and   to  America. 

Why  did  rxot  the  Church,  to  which  all  the  jNIethodist 
leaders  belonged,  take  it  up  and  thank  God  for  it?  This 
question  has  been  often  asked.  The  answer  is  to  be 
found  in  its  central  principle  of  conscious  conversion. 
No  bishop  or  priest  could  join  in  the  Methodist  move- 
ment without  either  openly  declaring  that  he  had  had 
the  emotional  experience  demanded  as  a  condition  pre- 
cedent, —  a  declaration  which  the  majority  of  Christian 
men  cannot  honestly  make,  —  or  else  openly  confessing 
that  he  had  till  that  time  been  outside  of  the  very  king- 
dom of  God,  —  a  confession  which  still  fewer  will  admit.^ 

1  The  whole  attitude  of  the  Cliurcli  towards  Methodism  is  set  out  witli 
most  admirable  candor  and  iutelligence  by  Abbey :  English  Church  and 
Bishops  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  i.  pp.  288-291. 


170       THE   ENGLISH  CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

The  movement  reached  America  in  1767.  In  that 
year  the  first  Methodist  society  was  collected  in  New 
Came  to  York.^     The  "  Great  Awakening,"  which  was 

America.  ^jjgj^  .^t  its  greatest  activity,  had  prepared  the 
way  for  it.  Jonathan  Edwards  and  John  Wesley  were  at 
one  as  to  the  nature  of  personal  religion  ;  but  Edwards 
was  a  philosopher,  while  Wesley  was  pre-eminently  an 
organizer  and  a  man  of  affairs.  His  Methodist  machin- 
ery took  up  and  moulded  the  converts  of  the  Edwards 
movement. 

But  ]\Iethodism  had  a  relation  to  Episcopacy  which 
the  "  Great  Awakening "  had  not.  Whitefield,  who 
represented  Wesley  here,  was  a  priest  of  the  Church. 
Those  whom  he  baptized  were  made  thereby  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  of  England.  The  Methodist 
societies  used  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 

Methodists  .  t      ^     ■  i         n    i      i      i 

still  within  in  their  services,  and  their  people  all  looked 
the  Church,  ^^^j^^  Church  for  the  administration  of  the 
Sacraments.2  Up  to  this  point  Methodism  was  simply 
a  society  within  the  Church.  If  the  Church  here  had 
been  organized,  and  possessed  bishops  who  could  have 
ordained  ministers  fast  enough  to  keep  pace  with  the 
rapidly  multiplying  Methodist  societies,  they  would  in 
all  probability  have  remained  within  her  boundaries. 
Wesley  besought  Lowth,  Bishop  of  London,  to  ordain 
at  least  two  priests  who  could  administer  the  Sacraments 
to  American  Methodists.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  single 
action  of  a  bishop  has  ever  been  more  fruitful  for  evil 
than  his  refusal.     At  the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary 

1  McMaster:  History  of  the  People  of  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  56. 

2  Stevens:  History  of  American  Methodism,  p.  75. 


THE   METHODISTS.  ,  171 

War  the  Wesleyans  bad  increased  to  "  more  than  eighty 
travelling  preachers,  many  local  preachers,  hundreds  of 
class  leaders  and  exhorters,  thousands  of  members,  and 
ten  thousands  of  regular  hearers."'  ^  These  all  consid- 
ered themselves  to  be  within  the  Church,  and  were  so 
considered  both  by  Wesley  and  the  clergy  here.^  But  the 
great  spreading  branch  grew  too  heavy  to  be  sustained 
by  the  slender  stem  of  the  American  Church.  When 
Wesley  despaired  of  securing  clerg}^  from  the  Bishop  of 
London,  in  whose  jni-isdiction  the  American  Methodists 
The  Method-  ^^cre,  he  sent  Coke  and  Asbury  to  take  over- 
ist "  bishops."  sig-lit  of  them  as  "  superintendents."  When 
they  came  they  saw  the  situation  more  clearly  than 
their  patriarch  could  see  it  from  beyond  the  sea.  He 
had  constructed  a  Frankenstein  machine,  which  he 
was  not  able  single-handed  to  control.  The  superin- 
tendents were  not  restrained  by  the  same  high  Church- 
manship  which  Wesley  had  always  retained  side  by 
side  with  his  enthusiasm.  They  assumed  the  functions 
and  titles  of  bishops,  organized  the  scattered  societies 
into  the  compact  empire  which  Methodism  still  is,  cut 
the  strained  ligature  which  bound  it  to  the  Church, 
started  the  new  sect  upon  its  independent  way,  and 
made  a  new  rent  in  the  garment  of  the  Lord.  They  led 
out  of  the  Church  in  America  probably  one  hundred 
thousand  souls.  Wesley  sat  at  home  and  sent  out 
adjxirations  and  anathemas  after  his  recreant  super- 
intendents, but  it  was  too  late.  Their  action  was 
irretrievable.     By  his  laying  the  whole  weight  of  the 

1  Stevens  :  p.  181. 

2  lb.  p.  75. 


172       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IX   THE   COLONIES. 

Christian  system  upon  a  single  point,  he  had  destroj^ed 
the  "proportion  of  the  Faith,"  The  portion  of  the 
Church  which  depended  from  that  point  broke  away 
by  its  own  weight. 

The  loss  has  been  unspeakable  to  both  sections.  The 
Church  in  America  lost  the  most  active  part  of  its  mem- 
The  loss  by  bcrsliip  at  the  very  time  when  it  was  about 
separation.  ^q  need  them  most.  Methodism  lost  the 
balanced  order,  the  ethical  strenuousness,  the  broad 
liberality  and  wholesome  reasonableness,  which  have 
through  good  and  evil  been  the  possession  of  the 
Church. 


THE   EPISCOPATE.  173 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE   EPISCOPATE. 

Strictly  speaking,  the  Episcopal  Churcli  was  not 
present  in  America  as  an  organized  body  until  after 
the  Revolutionary  War.  Previous  to  that  time,  accord- 
ing to  the  generally  accepted  definition,  there  was  here 
only  the  material  out  of  which  it  was  afterward  to  be 
constructed. 

Two  fundamentally  different  theories  concerning  the 
nature  of  the  Church  are  now  extant. 

The  first  is  the  one  which  is  generally  entertained  in 
the  United  States.  To  a  large  niajoiity  of  persons  it 
Two  theories  seems  SO  palpably  true  and  reasonable  that 
ofthe  Church,  j^g  opposite  appears  grotesque.  It  is  that  a 
church,  like  a  state,  is  built  up  from  below.  The  mate- 
rials from  which  it  is  constructed  are  separate  individ- 
uals, who  have  given  in  their  adhesion  to  Jesus  Christ 
by  an  avowed  act  of  faith.  Having  established  their 
Christianity  as  individuals,  each  independentl}^  of  the 
other,  they  draw  together  because  they  are  like-minded, 
and  band  themselves  into  a  society  which  becomes  a 
Church.  It  is  open  to  them  to  constitute  this  society 
in  whatever  fashion  they  see  fit.  The  Holy  Scriptures 
are  conceived  to  be  silent  upon  the  whole  question  of 
organization,  presumably  with  the  intention  of  leaving 
men  free  to  follow   their  own  judgments    here.     The 


174       THE   ENGLISH    CHURCH    IX   THE   COLONIES. 

whole  power  of  ecclesiastical  government  rests  upon 
the  consent  of  the  governed.  It  is  a  question  of  votes. 
By  a  consensus  of  opinion  and  action  such  a  society 
may  make  such  regulations  m  it  chooses ;  may  be 
monarchical,  republican,  or  absolute  ;  may  ordain  such 
and  such  kinds  of  officers  as  it  may  determine ;  may 
call  its  officers  by  any  name  and  may  assign  to  them 
any  duties  it  will ;  and  may  remove  and  depose  them 
at  pleasure.  The  individuals  may  construct  such  an 
ecclesiastical  machine  as  they  think  will  be  most  effi- 
cient, and  then  may  reasonably  expect  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  will  lodge  in  it  as  its  motive  power.  This  is  the 
popular  notion  and  the  one  generally  accejjted  by  Prot- 
estantism. 

The  other  theory  is  that  the  Church  is  organized  from 
the  summit  downward  ;  that  the  authority  which  per- 
tains to  it,  and  the  grace  which  flows  through  it,  are 
things  which  do  not  depend  upon  the  votes  of  its  units  ; 
that  men  do  not  establish  their  Christianity  as  isolated 
souls,  but  that  the  Church  is  concerned  even  in  the 
original  transaction  by  the  individual.^  '^^^^J  who  hold 
to  this  theory  conceive  that  the  essential  features  of 
the  Church's  structure  liave  been  long  since  settled. 
Whether  they  might  not  be  changed  under  the  stress 
of  an  absolute  necessity,  is  a  question  they  do  not  seri- 
ously ask.  They  wait  for  such  a  demonstrable  neces- 
sity to  appear,  and  assert  that  it  never  yet  lias  appeared. 
They  declare  that  "it  is  evident  to  all  men  diligently 
reading  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  ancient  Authors,  that 
from  the  Apostles'  time  there  have  been  these  Orders 
of   Ministers    in    Christ's    Church,  —  Bislioi)s,    Priests, 

'  "  It  [the  Holy  Spirit]  was  given  corporately,  so  that  they  who  received 
it  realized  at  once  a  unity  which  preceded  any  indi\iilual  action  of  their 
own."— Lux  Miiiidi.     New  York  :  E.  &  J.  B.  Young  A:  Co.,  1890,  \\  373. 


THE   EPISCOPATE.  175 

and  Deacons."  ^  While  they  do  not  assert  that  tliis 
arrangement  is  the  result  of  a  categorical  command 
of  God,  still  they  hold  it  to  be  of  so  potent  obligation 
that  it  may  not  be  changed  except  for  weightier  reasons 
than  have  ever  yet  appeared.  This  conception  of  the 
Church  is  of  the  essence  of  Episcopac}'.  Overwhelmed 
as  it  is  by  popular  vote  in  the  United  States,  it  still  is 
the  belief  held  and  acted  upon  by  five-sixths  of  the 
Christian  world. 

Its  acceptance  by  the  members  of  the  English  Church 
in  colonial  times,  put  them  at  an  incalculable  disadvan- 
Praoticai  dis-  ^'^§'6  as  compared  with  their  fellow-colonists, 
advantage  of    ^pj^g  Church  was  here,  as  Richard  complained 

the  Church's 

theory.  that  he  had  been  sent  into  the  world,  "•  scarce 

half  made  up."  An  Episcopal  Church  without  a  Bishop 
is  as  a  body  without  a  head.  The  scattered  parishes 
were  as  the  beads  of  a  rosary  in  which  the  string  is  cut, 
leaving  the  cross,  which  should  be  pendent,  to  fall 
helpless  upon  the  ground.  At  the  first  settlement  of  the 
country  the  then  Bishop  of  London  had  chanced  to  be 
a  stockholder  and  a  member  of  council  in  the  "Virginia 
Company."  This  fact  gave  him  a  vague,  advisory 
oversight  of  its  affairs.  His  successors  for  nearly  a 
century  followed  his  example  until  it  became  a  pre- 
scriptive right  of  that  see.  Bishop  Compton  in  1703 
had  it  confirmed  to  him  and  his  successors  by  an 
"  Order  in  Council."  ^  But  the  supervision  which  the 
Bishop  of  London  could  give  to  churches  farther  away 
than  the  heart  of  Australia  now  is,  was  worth  but  little. 


'  Prayer-Book:  Preface  to  Ordinal. 

2  Abliey:  Englisli  Church  and  its  Bisliops,  vol.  i.  p.  82. 


176       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

No  order  could  be  guaranteed.  Discipline  could  not  be 
maintained.  Confirmation  was  a  physical  impossibility. 
But  it  was  in  regard  to  ordination  that  the  evil  of  the 
situation  made  itself  most  keenly  felt.  Other  churches 
were   here  with   their   complete  equipment. 

Ordination  .,    .  p    t^       i      ,      • 

and  disci-        When  a  sumcient  number  oi    rresbyterians 

^^^"^'  found  themselves  living  together  in  a  remote 

settlement,  they  chose  a  man  for  pastor,  and  at  the 
most  he  need  not  leave  the  colony  to  find  a  Presbytery 
in  session  who  could  lay  hands  on  him.  If  they  were 
Baptists  or  Independents  they  chose  a  man,  and  either 
invited  two  or  three  neighboring  ministers  to  join  with 
them,  or,  in  default  of  that,  ordained  him  themselves. 
When  a  Quaker  meeting  grew  too  large  it  swarmed  like 
a  hive  of  bees,  and  the  younger  swarm  set  up  for  itself. 
The  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Churchmen  were  help- 
less. For  a  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  the  Church 
in  America  was  a  Japhet  in  search  of  a  father.  The 
chapter  now  before  us  is  the  story  of  the  long,  weari- 
some, pitiful,  despairing  effort  to  obtain  that  office 
without  which  the  Church  could  not  live. 

As  early  as  1638  Archbishop   Laud  had  a  plan  ^   to 

send  out  a  bishop  to  New  England  who  might  keep  as 

tight  a  hand  over  the   Puritans  there  as  he 

Early  efforts         *  ^     •     ^       ,i  .   ^  r>j- 

to  obtain  the  was  doiug  over  their  brethren  at  home.  But 
Episcopate.  ^^^^  triumph  of  Parliament,  the  overthrow  of 
the  king,  and  the  loss  of  his  own  head  prevented  his 
carrying  it  into  effect. 

During  the  Commonwealth,  of  course,  nothing  could 
be  expected  in  the  colonies  from  a  Church  that  was  at 
its  last  gasp  at  home. 

1  Hawkins:  Historical  Notices,  London,  1845,  p.  37G. 


THE   EPISCOPATE.  177 

After  the  Restoration  the  Lord  Chancellor  Clarendon  ^ 
undertook  a  similar  project  in  Virginia,  but  a  change  of 
ministry  and  the  indifference  of  the  dissolute  king 
brought  it  to  naught. 

Tenison  and  Seeker,  Archbishops  of  Canterbury,  and 
Compton,  Bishop  of  London,  labored  often  and  vainly  to 
secure  the  same  end. 

From  this  side  of  the  water  the  cry  for  a  bishop  was 
never  silent.  We  have  already  noticed  the  scheme  pro- 
posed by  Chaplain  Miller  at  the  time  of  the  English 
capture  of  New  York.  So  far  as  any  difficulty  from 
this  side  was  concerned,  his  plan  Avas  entirely  feasible. 
It  was  to  set  aside  "  the  king's  farm  "  in  New  York,  for 
the  support  of  a  suffragan  of  the  Bishop  of  London, 
who  should  liave  jurisdiction  in  all  America. 

So  soon  as  the  first  hardships  of  settlement  were  past 
and  the  Church  really  began  to  grow,  the  need  became 
imperative. 

When  Keith  and  Talbot,  the  first  missionaries  of  the 
S.  P.  G.,  had  completed  the  tour  of  investigation  which 
The  need  of  it  fl^sir  instructions  made  their  dut}^  they  re- 
patent,  ported  that  the  primary  need  was  bishops. 
Talbot  writes  to  the  Society,  in  1702,"^  "  I  don't  doubt 
that  some  good  man  with  one  hundred  pounds  a  year 
would  do  the  Church  more  service  than  with  a  coach 
and  six  a  hundred  years  hence."  Two  years  later  he 
wrote  to  his  friend  Keith,  "■  Mr.  John  Lillingston  de- 
signs, it  seems,  to  go  to  England  next  year.  He  seems 
to  be  the  fittest  person  that  America    affords  for  the 


1  Hawkins :  Historical  Notices,  p.  376. 

2  MSS.  Letters,  vol.  xi.  p.  335. 


178       tup:   ENGLISH   CTIUKCII   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

office  of  a  suffragan.  Several  of  the  clergy,  both  of 
this  province  and  of  Maryland,  have  said  they  would 
pay  their  tenths  to  him  as  the  vice-gerent  of  my  Lord 
of  London,  whereby  the  Bishop  of  America  might  have 
as  honorable  provision  as  some  in  Europe." 

In  a  letter  to  the  secretary  of  the  S.  P.  G.,  he  speaks 
with  great  plainness,  urging  sharply  that  when  the 
Apostles  heard  that  Samaria  had  received  the  Word  of 
God,  they  sent  Peter  and  Jolni  that  they  might  receive 
the  Holy  Ghost,  not  standing  upon  any  question  of 
salary  ;  that  when  they  heard  the  Word  was  preached  at 
Antioch  they  sent  there  Paul  and  Barnabas ;  that  when 
Paul  did  only  dream  that  a  man  wanted  him  in  Mace- 
donia, he  went  all  so  fast;  —  "but  here  we  have  been 
calling  these  so  many  years,  and  you  will  not  hear,  or 
will  not  answer,  which  is  the  same  thing."  He  does 
not  undertake  to  prophesy,  but  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
the  kingdom  "  being  taken  away  from  them  who  will 
not  use  it,  and  given  to  them  who  will !  " 

A  convocation  of  fourteen  clergymen  at  Burlington, 
N.  J.,  in  1705,  signed  a  petition  to  the  Archbishop, 
Great  oppor-  representing  that  many  Lutheran  and  Inde- 
tunities  lost,  pendent  Ministers  were  ready  to  conform  if  a 
Bishop  were  here  to. ordain  them.^ 

In  1709  the  officers  of  the  S.  P.  G.  presented  a  memo- 
rial to  Queen  Anne  begging  that  a  colonial  bishopric 
might  be  endowed  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  lands 
ceded  by  the  Council  of  Utrecht,^  but  the  death  of  tlie 
queen  put  an  end  to  the  project. 

1  MSS.  Letters,  voL  xi.  p.  335. 

2  Abbey:  English  Church  and  P>i.shops,  vol.  i.  p.  87. 
Beardsley:  Life  of  Johnson,  p.  15. 


THE   EPISCOrATE.  179 

The  same  year,  (xoveinor  Nicholson  of  Maiyland 
wrote  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  that  "  unless  bish- 
ops can  be  had,  the  Church  will  surely  decline." 

In  1715,  the  S.  P.  G.  laid  before  George  I.  a  well- 
digested  scheme  for  the  same  purpose.  It  was  proposed 
The  s  P  G  's  ^^^'^^  ^*^"^'  bishops  should  be  consecrated,  one 
plan.  £,,^.  Barl)adoes,  one  for  Jamaica,  one  to  have 

his  seat  at  Burlington,  N.  J.,  and  another  at  Williams- 
burg, Va.  The  Northern  Diocese  was  to  include  all  the 
settlements  east  of  the  Delaware,  extending  to  New- 
foundland ;  the  Southern  Diocese  having  all  west  of  tlie 
Delaware,  and  reaehing  to  the  Spanish  possessions. 
They  represented  that  the  college  at  Williamsburg 
would  provide  a  place  for  the  one,  and  that  they  had 
purchased,  for  six  hundred  })0unds,  a  house  and  grounds 
at  Burlington  for  the  other.  Just  then  the  Scotch  re- 
bellion broke  out,  and  the  High  Church  clergy  showed 
so  much  sympathy  for  the  Stuart  line  that  the  King  and 
his  minister,  Walpole,  would  hear  nothing  further  about 
the  Church's  affairs. ^  With  a  lingering  hope  in  the 
ultimate  fulfilment  of  the  plan.  Bishop  Tenison  left  one 
thousand  pounds  in  his  will  for  the  American  part  of  it. 

In  1765  a  still  more  promising  plan  was  devised 
on  this  side  of  the  sea.  In  southern  Pennsylvania 
Th  Penns  1-  tliere  were  rich  manors  which  had  been  re- 
vania  plan,  served  for  the  Duke  of  York.  They  were 
not  occupied  by  anybody  wlio  could  show  good  title. 
In  the  Delaware  River  were  also  sundry  islands,  occu- 
pied in  part  by  squatters,  but  which  were  not  included 
in  Penn's  grant.     These  together  would  provide  ample 

1  MSS.  Letters,  vol.  x.  p.  28. 


180       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH  IN   THE   COLONIES. 

endowment  for  a  ])ishopric,  and  their  resumption  for 
that  purpose  woukl  disturb  no  equities.^  Nothing  came 
of  it. 

Nothing  came  of  the  petition  in  which  the  clergy  of 
Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  New  York  all  joined.^ 
Nothing  came  of  the  appeals  of  Cutler  and  Johnson,  and 
the  Commissaries,  and  fifty  others  who  pleaded  for  the 
Episcopate.  They  represented  with  truth  that  for  the 
lack  of  it  the  Church  was  falling  into  disorder  and  dis- 
grace ;  that  dissenting  ministers  in  plenty  were  ready 
to  conform,  but  were  not  willing  to  cross  the  sea  for 
ordination  ;  that  of  those  who  had  crossed,  one-fourth, 
by  actual  count,  had  been  lost  at  sea,  captured  by 
pirates,  shipwrecked,  or  died  of  smallpox  in  England. 
But  their  prayers,  joined  with  those  of  the  officers  of 
the  S.  P.  G.,  of  Tenison,  Compton,  and  Seeker,  had 
been  fruitless,  — and  why?  Why  was  an  action  appar- 
ently so  easily  done,  so  desired  by  the  parties  concerned, 
and  so  essential  to  the  Church's  welfare,  persistently 
refused  ? 

The  fundamental  reason  was  that  same  entanglement 
of  Church  with  State  which  had  nearly  choked  out  all 
Reasons  of  Spiritual  life.  The  Church  of  England,  par- 
the  failure,  alyzed  by  this  fatal  alliance,  had  lost  the  power 
not  only  to  act  but  even  to  think  for  herself.  But  even 
if  she  had  had  the  power  to  do  her  duty  to  her  far-away 
children,  she,  for  the  most  part,  had  neither  the  knowl- 
edge nor  the  good-will  requisite.  Britisli  ignorance  of 
American  affairs  is  even  now  a  standing  jest.      That 

1  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  vol.  Pa.  p.  373. 

2  Smitli:  Life  of  Dr.  William  Smith,  vol.  i.  p.  270. 


THE   EPISCOPATE.  181 

density  which  cannot  perceive  an  American  witticism, 
which  looks  for  buffalo  about  the  suburbs  of  New  York 
and  wild  Indians  in  the  streets  of  Chicago,  two  hundred 
3^ears  ago  Avas  still  more  hopeless.  Tlie  English  piqued 
themselves  upon  their  ignorance  and  indifference.  A 
few  bishops  and  agents  of  the  S.  P.  G.,  and  the  vulgar 
merchants  of  the  City,  were  fairly  well  informed ;  but, 
as  a  rule,  the  people  gave  no  thought  to  the  plantations. 
Especially  were  they  indifferent  to  matters  pertaining 
to  the  Church.i  That  sense  of  personal  responsibility 
for  the  progress  of  the  body,  which  marks  the  member- 
ship of  a  voluntary  Church,  is  not  to  be  expected  in  an 
Establishment.  In  it  it  is  the  business  of  the  official 
class  to  make  plans  and  execute  them.  Could  English- 
men have  realized  at  all  the  mighty  destiny  of  the  then 
neglected  colonies,  they  would,  of  course,  have  acted 
differently  towards  them ;  but  this  sort  of  knowledge  is 
too  much  to  expect  of  any  generation.  As  the  feeling 
then  was,  the  suggestion  of  a  bishop  for  the  colonies 
seemed  to  the  ordinary  mind  the  most  grotesque  of 
The  current  incongruities.  It  was  as  though  a  serious 
conception  of  p^.QpQgal  had  been  made  to  send  a  sword  of 

the  Episcopal   i      i 

office.  state  to  the  King  of  the  Cannibal  Islands,  or 

a  coach  and  six  to  Prester  John,  The  current  con- 
ceptions of  Avhat  a  bishop  was,  and  what  a  "  planta- 
tion "  was,  were  two  notions  wdiich  would  not  fit 
together.  A  bishop  was  a  dignitary,  a  peer,  a  being 
of  exalted  state,  as  much  for  show  as  for  use,  but  indis- 
pensable to  the  right  constitution  of  things,  —  in  Eng- 
land.    The  modern  idea  of  an  Apostolic  Bishop  was  not 

1  White:  Memoirs,  New  York,  1880,  p.  75, 


IS2       THE    ENGLISH    CllUItCII    I\   THE   ("OLONIES. 

thinkable.  Such  a  creature  liacl  not  been  seen  for  so 
many  centuries  that  his  nienior}'  had  faded  out.  They 
were  not  capable  of  imagining  a  bislio})  who  had  no 
connection  with  the  State,  no  artificial  dignity,  simply 
an  Apostolic  man,  going  about  like  Selwyn  or  Chase, 
in  the  humblest  guise,  without  state  or  ceremonial  or 
guaranteed  livelihood  even,  mindful  of  his  work  for 
Christ  and  His  Church.  The  oflicer  which  the  Ameri- 
can Church  asked  was  an  official  which  the  English 
Churchmen  could  not  then  picture  to  themselves. 

To  this  difficulty  of  the  understanding,  the  moral 
darkness  of  the  eighteenth  century  added  a  difficulty  of 
spirit.  The  great  men  of  the  Church  were  writing 
books;  the  little  men  were  scheming  for  preferment; 
the  mass  was  careless  of  the  whole  matter.^  Besides 
this  there  was  the  long-continued  feeling  of  distrust  of 
Churchmen,  entertained  by  the  civil  power.^  To  the 
secular  official's  way  of  thinking,  there  were  too  many 
bishops  already.  "  Priestcraft  "  was  one  of  the  cries  of 
the  day.  No  action  would  be  permitted,  if  politicians 
could  help  it,  which  would  even  seem  to  be  in  the 
interest  of  the  sacerdotal  order. 

These   \vere  the  obstacles  in  the  mother  country,  — 
ignorance,    indifference,    prejudice,    political     entangle- 
ments, and  secular  iealousies.     By  the  time 
Fear  of  the  .  ''  „    ,     . 

office  in  the     they   were    in   the  way  of   benig   overcome, 

a   dangerous    opposition  to    Episcopacy   had 
developed  in  tlie  colonies  themselves.^ 

1  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  vol.  Muss.  ji.  075. 

1  Abbey  and  Overton:  Englisli  Church  in  Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  i 
pp.  39,  40. 

2  Abbey:  English  Church  and  its  Bishops,  vol.  i.  pp.  35,  3(J. 

3  Baird :  Religion  in  America,  p.  18'2. 


THE   EPISCOPATE.  183 

The  idea  of  an  ultimate  separation  from  Eng-land,  or, 
rather,  of  securing  a  home  rule  for  the  colonies,  began 
to  be  entertained  at  a  much  earlier  date  than  is  generally 
supposed.!  Indeed  it  was  present  to  some 
thought  of  minds  from  the  very  first.  It  was  openly 
separa  ion.  charged  against  the  colonies,  during  the  long 
contests  over  their  charters,  that  their  purpose  was  to 
break  away  entirely  from  English  authority.  It  cannot 
be  said  that  this  was  their  purpose  in  the  way  of  being 
before  their  minds  in  the  shape  of  a  definite  design ; 
but  it  was  in  the  form  of  a  dream  which  many  loved 
to  entertain.  In  truth  the  Avar  for  independence  became 
a  future  certainty  the  day  the  first  permanent  settle- 
ment was  made.  The  necessity  was  in  the  situation. 
Some  saw  it  early ;  some  saw  it  clearly  ;  but  all  felt  it 
instinctively.  Out  of  this  instinct  arose  the  strenuous 
opposition  which  the  great  body  of  colonists  showed  to 
the  introduction  of  the  Episcopate.  It  commenced  to 
manifest  itself  as  soon  as  the  dream  of  ultimate  separa- 
tion began  to  be  clearly  defined,  and  continued  until 
separation  became  a  fact,  when  it  suddenly  ceased. 

The  ground  of  the  opposition  was  twofold,  political 
and  ecclesiastical.  In  form  the  long  controversy  was  a 
discussion  concerning  the  right  and  scriptural  organiza- 
tion of  the  Church ;  but  in  spirit  it  was  a  political 
contest.  "•  The  whole  body  of  the  Puritans  were  deter- 
mined to  resist  the  introduction  of  bishops  into  America. 
Thev  feared   lest  these  might  use  all  the  authority  of 


1  Sabine:  Loyalists  of  the  American  Revolution,  vol.  1.  p.  65. 

1  Abbey:  English  Church  and  Bishops,  vol.  i.  j).  88. 

^  Caswall:  The  American  Church  and  the  American  Union,  p.  73. 


184       THE   ENGLISH    CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

the  Crown  to  destroy  Puritanism  and  establish  Prel- 
acy." ^  The  primary  olujection  to  bishops  was  that  they 
were  officers  of  the  Crown ;  opposition  to  them  as  being 
officials  unknown  to  Scripture  and  the  primitive  Church 
was  an  after-thought.  No  question  was  discussed  in 
colonial  times  which  so  seriously  enlisted  the  inter- 
est of  the  people  as  did  this  one.  The  controversy 
raged  intermittently  for  seventy  years.  Checkly, 
Johnson,  Beach,  Apthorp,  and  Chandler  maintained 
the  Church's  side.^  They  were  answered  by  Dick- 
inson, Mayhew,  Chauncey,  and  a  hundred  others,  from 
the  Dissenters'  standpoint.  Pamphlets,  broadsides,  let- 
ters, newspaper  skits,  '^  Questions  Stated,"  "  Replies 
to  Questions  Stated,"  and  "  Answers  to  Replies  to 
Questions  Stated,"  kept  the  printers  busy  for  years.  - 

It  is  mucli  the  custom  for  Cliurch  writers  to  assume 
that  the  opposition  to  the  Episcopate  was  but  the  out- 
come of  the  wanton  and  gratuitous  enmity  of  those 
who  hated  the  Church.  Both  charity  and  fact  con- 
demn this  assumption.  The  situation  being  what  it 
then  was,  there  was  good  and  substantial  ground  for 
opposition. 

The  fundamental  political  question  which  Avas  opened 
when  the  original  charters  were  withdrawn, 

The  legal  °        . 

status  of  the    and   whicli   remained  open   till  the   Revolu- 
tion, was :    What   is  the  legal  status    of  the 
colonies  ?  ^    Were  they  an  integral  part  of  the  kingdom  1 

1  Briggs:  American  Presbyterianisin,  p.  143. 

2  White :  Memoirs,  p.  73. 

3  Smitli:  History  of  New  York,  pp.  220-228. 

3  Sabine:  Loyalists  of  the  Revolution,  vol.  i.  p.  24. 
3  McMaster:  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  33. 

J 


THE   EPISCOPATE.  185 

Or  did  their  charters  give  them  an  autonomy  ?  These 
two  contentions  were  the  opposite  poles  of  the  dispute. 
If  the  former  were  the  true  principle,  then  English  law 
and  custom  were  of  obligation  at  every  point  where 
they  were  not  estopped  by  the  distinct  provision  of  a 
charter.  Now  the  Church  Establishment  was  part  and 
parcel  of  the  English  law.  It  was  seriously  contended 
that  it  was  ipso  facto  established  here  also  ;  "  that  the 
constitutional  laws  of  the  mother  country,  antecedent 
to  the  legislatures  of  our  own,  are  binding  upon  us ; 
and  therefore  at  the  planting  of  the  colony  the  English 
religious  Establishment  innnediately  took  place ;  sec- 
ondly, that  the  Act  which  established  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  South  Britain,  previous  to  the  union  of  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  extended  to  and  equally  affected  all 
the  colonies."  ^  If  this  contention  of  Churchmen  were 
well  founded,  then  bishops,  if  they  came  here  at  all, 
would  come  with  the  whole  power  of  English  law 
behind  them.  No  matter  what  assurances  they  might 
give  that  they  had  only  spiritual  purposes  in  view, 
they  would  still  be  invested  with  secular  powers  which 
they  could  not  renounce  if  they  wanted  to ;  and  human 
nature  being  what  it  is,  they  could  not  be  trusted  to 
confine  themselves  to  spiritual  weapons  while  they 
would  have  such  potent  secular  ones  ready  to  hand. 
John  Adams's  "  ^^  Parliament  can  tax  us,"  says  John 
opinion.  Adams,  "they  can  establish  the  Church  of 

England  with  all  its  creeds,  articles,  tests,  ceremonies, 
and  tithes,  and  prohibit  all  other  Churches  as  conventi- 
cles and  schism  shops."  ^     Adams  was  clearly  right ;  at 

1  Smith:  History  of  New  York,  p.  220. 

2  John  Adams:  Works,  vol.  x.  p.  287. 


186       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

any  rate  he  expressed  the  honest  belief  of  the  great 
majority  on  both  sides  of  the  question.  Dr.  Chandler's 
sincerity  is  not  to  be  questioned  when  he  asserted  that 
"  the  bishops  proposed  were  to  have  no  temporal  power, 
no  maintenance  from  the  colonies,  to  be  confined  to  the 
exercise  of  their  spiritual  functions  only."  ^  This  was 
all  very  well,  but  wlio  was  to  guarantee  that  the 
bishops,  if  they  came,  would  take  the  same  view  of 
the  case?  And  if  they  should  take  a  different  view, 
what,  upon  the  Tory  theory  of  the  political  status,  was 
to  hinder  them  from  carrying  it  out  to  the  discomfiture 
of    dissenters  ?       The    Episcopal    advocates 

Fear  of  the  ^       . 

Episcopate  thcmselvcs  let  out  unconsciously  that  the 
bishop)  they  had  in  mind  was  not  just  the 
meek  and  apostolic  creature  described.  Every  scheme 
proposed  began  with  a  '.'sufficient  provision  for  his 
dignified  maintenance."  The  power  which  he  would 
be  to  allay  political  disaffection,  is  constantl}'  dwelt 
ui^on  in  the  letters  of  the  Venerable  Society's  mis- 
sionaries.^  "  The  King  is  thoroughly  sensible  that  the 
Episcopalians  are  his  best  friends."  ^  The  clergy  here 
were  careful  to  sustain  this  conviction  of  the  King. 
The  people  generally  knew  this  to  be  the  case.  They 
feared,  and  under  the  circumstances  had  reason  to  fear, 
the  consequences  which  might  flow  from  allowing  the 
Church  to  set  up  her  powerful  machinery  here  in  its 
entirety.  This  apprehension  was  not  confined  to  dis- 
senters or  even  Church  laymen.  In  1771,  only  twelve 
out  of    the  one  hundred   clergy   in   Virginia  joined  in 

^  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabury,  p.  73. 

2  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  pas.sini. 

*  Abbey:  English  Church  and  Bishops,  vol.  i.  p.  3G4.  ^ 


THE   EPISCOPATE.  187 

a  petition  to  the  Crown  for  an  American  bishop.  A 
laro-er  convention  than  the  one  which  adopted  the 
measure  rejected  it,  and  four  of  them  sent  their  pro- 
test against  it  to  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses,  — 
ahiiostall  of  which  were  Churchmen,  — and  received  the 
formal  thanks  of  the  House  for  their  patriotic  action.^ 
Few  clergy  indeed  sympathized  with  these  four,  but  the 
significant  thing  is  that  there  were  any  such. 

The  truth  would  seem  to  be,  that  in  the  face  of  the 
dissenting  opposition,  the  support  which  the  opposition 
Bishops  im-  received  from  the  dissenters  and  the  colonial 
possible  till     acrents  in  Encrland,  the  indifference   of    the 

after  the  »  ^ 

Revolution.  American  laity,  the  apathy  of  the  English 
clergy,  and  the  impotence  of  the  bishops  who  moved 
in  the  matter,  tliere  was  no  time,  from  the  opening  of 
the  eighteenth  century  till  the  close  of  the  Revolution, 
when  it  would  have  been  possible  to  have  a  bishop 
consecrated  for  America.^ 

This  was  the  judgment  to  which  the  clergy  them- 
selves reluctantly  came.^  Some  among  them  despaired 
entirely.     Some  began  to  turn  their  thoughts  elsewhere 

to  the  Swedish  or  Moravian  Church.    Not  a  few  of  the 

clero-y  in  the  Middle  and  Southern  colonies  entertained 

the  idea  of  an  "  Independent  Episcopal  Church."     Dr. 

Smith    wrote   to   the   Bishop  of   London  in 

Idea  of  an  "  .        ,  .       i  •    n      r 

"independ-  1776,  ^' The  rest  are  a  mixed  sort,  chietiy  tor 
ent  Church."  _^^^  Independent  Church  of  England  —  a 
strange  sort  of  church  indeed !  But  the  notion  gains 
too  much  ground  here  even  among  the  clergy.    I  believe 

1  White:  IMemoiis,  p.  76. 

2  White:  Memoirs,  p.  75. 

8  Smith:  Life  of  Dr.  Smith,  vol.  i.  p.  387. 


188       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

your  lordship  will  perceive  something  of  this  sort  not 
altogether  pleasing  if  the  resolves  of  a  majority  of  the 
last  Jersey  Convention  come  before  you,  against  commis- 
saries, and  preferring  thereto  a  kind  of  presbyterian  or 
synodical  self-delegated  government  by  conventions."  ^ 
This  idea  was  developed  by  Dr.  White  of  Philadelphia, 
in  1782,  in  his  celebrated  pamphlet,  "The  Case  of  the 
Episcopal  Churches  Considered."  ^  Dr.  White  did  not 
Dr  White's  Speak  for  himself  alone,  by  any  means,  when 
plan.  \iQ  proposed  his  plan.     His  scheme  assumed 

tliat  the  hope  of  obtaining  the  Episcopate  from  Eng- 
land had  been  demonstrated  to  be  impossible,  and  had 
been  abandoned.  In  that  case  there  seemed  to  him  to 
remain  but  the  alternatives  of  permanent  anarchy,  or 
such  an  organization  ^s  could  be  made  out  of  the  mate- 
rials present.  He  proposed  that  (a)  the  clergy  and  lay 
delegates  from  the  parishes,  in  definite  districts  to  be 
defined,  should  combine  in  an  organization  which  might 
be  called  a  Diocese  or  a  Synod  or  what  not ;  (6)  that 
these  organizations  should,  at  tlie  outset,  record  their 
attachment  to  Episcopacy,  and  their  determination  to 
secure  it  when  God  should  open  the  way  thereto ;  (c) 
that,  meanwhile,  the  Church  should  proceed  in  presbyte- 
rial  fashion,  inasmuch  as  the  Church  contemplated 
would  only  possess  presbyters.  He  justified  his  pro- 
posal by  the  plea  of  imperious  necessity ;  and  by  the 
fact  that  the  Church  of  England  had  never  denied  the 
validity  of  non-Episcopal  orders,  and  had  recognized 
them  under  a  less  exigent  need.^ 

»  Smith:  Life  of  Dr.  Smith,  vol.  i.  p.  40L 

1  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  vol.  Pa.  p.  414.     v^ 

2  White :  Memoirs,  p.  99. 

3  White:  Memoirs,  p.  101,  note. 


THE   EPISCOPATE.  189 

The  popular  judgment  concerning  the  matter  was 
fairly  stated  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  expressed  his 
The  0  uiar  amazement  that  devout  and  learned  men  who 
judgment.  were  fully  qualified  to  instruct  and  pray 
for  their  neighbors  should  hesitate  to  do  so  without 
taking  the  pains  to  cross  the  sea  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  "  the  permission  of  a  cross  old  gentleman  at 
Canterbury."  ^ 

But  whatever  might  be  the  theories  held  as  to  the 
succedaneums  proposed,  the  fact  was  patent  that  the 
question  of  the  Episcopate  was  involved  in  the  deeper 
question  of  the  legal  position  of  the  colonies,  and  that 
that  question  could  only  be  decided  by  the  stern  arbi- 
trament of  the  sword. 

1  McMaster:  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  232. 


190       THE   ENGLISH    CHURCH    IN   THE   COLONIES, 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

A    SUllVEY. 

It  is  not  easy  to  reproduce  a  picture  of  a  past  time, 
but  it  will  be  of  interest  to  pause  here  to  take  a  broad 
view  of  the  condition  of  the  Colonial  Church  at  the 
period  immediately  preceding  the  War  of  Independence. 

It  had  then  extended  from  the  chief  towns  and  settle- 
ments on  the  seaboard,  where  it  had  first  gained  a  lodge- 
Spread  of  the  nient,  to  the  new  places  of  the  second  rank. 
Church.  ^^3  i\^Q  opening  of  the  century  it  had  been 

found  only  at  such  places  as  Boston,  Newport,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Charleston,  and  on  the  Virginia 
coast.  Now  there  were  parishes  at  Falmouth  and  Casco, 
besides  the  old  one  at  Portsmouth ;  at  Salem,  Dedham, 
Marblehead,  in  Massachusetts;  at  Bristol,  R.  I.,  and 
New-England  towns  of  a  similar  class.  When  New 
Hampshire,  with  its  territorial  appendage  Vermont,  had 
a  Churchman  for  its  governor  at  the  middle  of  the  cent- 
ur}^  it  was  determined  to  endow  the  Church  from  its 
public  lands.  A  half-section  in  each  township  in  Ver- 
mont was  set  apart  for  this  purpose,  but  the  people  from 
whom  the  surveyors  were  taken  being  hostile,  the  sec- 
tions were  located  in  swamps,  on  mountain  tops,  and  in 
the  bottoms  of  lakes,  so  that  but  little  else  Cdtae  of  it 
than  came  of  all  similar  attempts ;   that  is,  the  ill-will 


A   SURVEY.  191 

of  the  people  and  small  gain  to  the  Chnrch.^  In  Con- 
necticut alone  can  it  be  said  that  striking  success  had 
In  Oonnecti-  ^'^^^^  achieved.  The  drift  toward  the  Church 
cut.  of  England,  which  began  with  the  President 

of  Yale  College  and  his  colleagues,  had  steadily  spread. 
The  people  came  in  in  large  numbers.^    There  was  to  be 
found  there  a  native-born  clergy,  of  a  far  higher  char- 
acter and  education,  and  with  more  intelligent  and  pro- 
nounced views  concerning  the  Church,  than   was    the 
rule  elsewhere.     Even  after  the  war,  during  which  the 
Church  had    been    torn    to    pieces    and    hundreds    had 
moved  away,  there  were  still  to  be  found  twenty  clergy 
and  forty  thousand  Church  people  in  that  colony .^     In 
it  there  had  never  been  any  of  those  impotent  attempts 
at  legal  coercion  which  the  Church  essayed  elsewhere. 
There  was  no  bad  blood,  no  memories  of  legal  violence. 
There  was  a  fair  parish  at  the  Dutch  town  of  Albany, 
little   churches   at   Rye,  Jamaica,  Hempstead,  and   on 
Staten  Island,^  beside  the  strong  and  grow- 
ing Church  in  New  York.     In  that  province 
the  Episcopalians  were  reckoned  at  about  one-fifteenth 
of  the  population.^     Burlington,  N.  J.,  was  one  of  the 
centres  of  Church  life,  and  the  seat  of  one  of 

New  Jersey  t        n  i  • 

andPennsyi-    the    proposed  bishopries.      In   rennsyivania 
^^°'^"  missions  had  pushed  as  far  west  as  Lancaster, 

and  even  Carlisle,  with  the  nucleus  of  a  parish  on  the 
Juniata.     In  the  South  there  had  been  a  distinct  retro 

1  Caswall:  American  Church  anil  American  Union,  p.  73. 

2  Bearilsley:  History  of  tlie  Church  in  Connecticut,  vol.  i.  passim. 

3  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabury,  p.  137. 

*  Smith:  History  of  New  York. 

*  Brigga:  American  Presbyterianism,  p.  109. 
5  Smith:  History  of  New  York,  p.  218. 


192       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

gression.^  Even  in  faithful  old  Virginia  dissenters  were 
two  to  one. 2  The  results  of  the  fatal  breach  between 
Condition  in  clergy  and  people  had  already  appeared  there, 
the  South.  Religious  indifference  prevailed  everywhere; 
churches  Avere  falhng  into  neglect  and  ruin  ;  many  of 
the  clergy  had  withdrawn ;  still  more  could  have  done 
so  to  advantage;  the  few  faithful  men  who  remained 
lamented  and  despaired.^  Further  south  the  condi- 
tion was  scarcely  better.  There  were  two  churches  in 
Charleston,  —  an  increase  of  one  in  eighty  years, — and 
six  meeting-houses.'*  But  the  clergy  of  South  Carolina 
were,  as  a  rule,  zealous  men,  and  had  the  great  advan- 
tage of  being  able  generally  to  take  the  side  of  their 
people  against  England.'^ 

All  the  parishes  from  Maine  to  Georgia  belonged  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  of  London.  Except  in 
Virginia  and  Maryland  the  clergy  were  practically  all 
missionaries  of  the  ''  British  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts." 

The  conversion  of  the  native  Indians,  which  had  been 
so  prominent  in  the  early  plans  of  the  Church,  had 
Decay  of  ind-  almost  entirely  failed  and  been  abandoned. 
ian Missions,  jj^  j^j^g  Soutli,  where  the  promise  for  this  work 
had  once  been  best,  it  had  gradually  died  away  as  negro 
slavery  became  more  and  more  firmly  established.  The 
low  estimate  of  the  intrinsic  value  of  a  human  being 
which   slavery  unconsciously  creates,  had   operated  to 

1  Peny:  History,  vol.  ii.  pp.  141-143. 

2  Lodge :  History  of  the  Colonies,  p.  57. 

3  lb.  p.  58. 

4  lb.  p.  176. 

5  lb.  p.  176. 


A   SURVEY.  193 

put  an  end  to  missionary  work  among  savages.     In  the 

North  a  struggling  mission  was  still  maintained  among 

the  Mohawks,!  ^ut  it,  too,  was  soon  to  be  swept  away 

by  the  imminent  war.     Speaking  broadly,  there  cannot 

be  said  to  have  been  any  permanent  work  of  any  church 

efPected  among  the  Indians  until   they  had  become  so 

surrounded  and  hemmed  in  by  the  white  population  that 

their  restless  savagery  was  to  a  degree  restrained.     The 

success  was  earliest  and  most  marked  among  those  tribes 

which  were  already  partly  civilized  and  fixed  in  their 

habitat  when  the  whites  first  saw  them.^     At  the  period 

before  us  they  had  only  just  laid  down  the  tomahawk 

and  butcher-knife,  which  they  had  carried  for  so  long  at 

the  instigation  of  the  French,  and  were  about  to  take 

them   up   again  in  the  pay  of   the  English.      By  the 

colonists    they  were   feared   and   loathed    as  monsters 

compounded  of  wolf  and  fiend. 

The   Church  growth  was  very  unequal  in  different 

localities.     The   accession   from   Quakers   in   Pennsyl- 

.      vania,  which  had  set  in  at  a  very  early  period. 
Sources  oi  '  . 

gain.  still  continued.     The  reports  of  the  mission- 

aries in  the  outlying  counties  constantly  record  the 
baptism  of  these  people  and  their  children.  The  rapid 
growth  in  Connecticut  has  been  already  noticed.  In 
New  York  and  New  Jersey  the  great  gain  was  from  the 
Dutch.  The  hereditary  enmities  which  separated  other 
Presbyterians  from  the  Church  did  not  operate  among 
them.  There  had  been  differences,  of  course,  but  there 
was  no  deep-seated  rancor  on  either  hand.     They  deeply 

1  Perry:  History,  vol.  i.  p.  333. 

2  Parkinaii:  Discovery  of  the  Great  West,  p.  275. 

2  Liggiiis:  Value  and  Success  of  Foreign  Missions,  p.  157. 


194       THE   EXGLISH   CHURCH    IX   THE   COLONIES. 

sympathized  with  the  Church  in  one  important  particu- 
lar ;  they  also  felt  bound  to  cross  the  sea  for  ordination.^ 
When  a  schism  was  effected  among  themselves  upon 
this  question,  and  an  "■  American  Dutch  Church"  was 
From  the  ^^^  "P'^  many  of  the  dissatisfied  on  either 
Dutch.  i^.^j^(^[  cume  to  the  English  Church.     But  the 

most  active  cause  was  the  stolid  tenacity  with  which 
they  held  on  to  the  Dutch  tongue  in  their  public  wor- 
ship, long  after  their  children  and  youth  had  ceased  to 
be  at  home  in  it.  These  became  restive  and  came 
numerously  to  the  Church,  Adhere  they  could  hear  Eng- 
lish spoken.  When  the  elders  did  bring  themselves  to 
give  up  their  Dutch,  it  was  too  late ;  their  children  had 
become  Episcopalians.'^ 

In  Philacleli^hia  the  Dutch  congregation  offered  to 
come  over  in  a  body  if  the  Bishop  of  London  would 
ordain  their  minister. 

The  Lutheran  Coetus  in  Pennsylvania  made  the  same 
proposition,  and  the  Swedish  Commissary  offered  to 
lead  the  movement,  and  to  conduct  the  negotiations 
between  the  two  Churches,  in  both  of  which  his  own 
ministry  Avas  recognized.*  Had  there  been  a  bishop 
resident  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  a  perma- 
nent coalescence  might  have  been  effected  between  both 

1  Gnnn:  Memoirs  of  Dr.  Livingston,  New  York,  1829,  pp.  92,  93. 

2  lb.  p.  94. 

3  A  Mr.  Livingston,  a  member  of  the  Dutch  Church,  writes  in  1770: 
"  Had  this  been  clone  thirty  years  ago  the  Dutch  Congregation  would  have 
been  much  more  numerous  than  it  is  now.  The  greatest  part  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  consists  of  the  accessions  they  have  had  from  the 
Dutch  Church."  And  he  adds  that  though  Dutch  was  his  own  mother 
tongue,  he  could  not  understand  a  sermon  half  so  well  in  it  as  he  could 
in  English;  and  as  for  his  children,  "  there  was  not  one  that  understood 
a  sentence  in  Dutch."     Memoirs  of  Dr.  Livingston,  p.  108. 

*  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  vol.  Pa.,  pp.  307,  390,432. 


A   SURVEY.  195 

these  bodies  and  this  Church,  as  couhl  also  have  been 
done  with  the  Methodists  ten  years  Later. 

The  constant  comphiint  of  the  time  was  that  there 
were  not  enough  clergy  to  go  in  and  possess  the  places 
Lack  of  which  offered.     Young  men   thought   twice 

clergy.  before   they   ventured   upon  the  dangers  of 

shipAvreck  and  smallpox,  as  well  as  the  great  expense, 
which  were  involved  in  a  journey  to  England  for  ordi- 
nation.i 

With  the  meagre  means  at  her  hand  the  Church 
had  done  much  in  the  way  of  education,  but  at  the 
date  before  us  was  being  left  behind  in  this  race  by 
the  other  churches.  The  institutions  now  known  as 
Columbia  College  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
had  both  been  established  under  Church  auspices,  and 
in  both  instances  had  for  their  primary  object  to  increase 
the  ministry .2  They  had  clergymen  for  their  organizers 
and  first  presidents,  but  as  the  political  issue  grew  more 
clearly  pronounced  they  passed  more  and  more  out  from 
under  Episcopal  influence. 

The  Church  life  was  affected,  as  it  always  is,  by  the 
prevailing  moral  habits  of  the  age.  Public  and  private 
State  of  re-  morals  never  reached  so  low  an  ebb  in  the 
ligion.  colonies  as  they  did  in  the  mother  countr}' ; 

but  still  they  were  low  enough.  The  Deism  and  its 
attendant  loosening  of  moral  sanctions,  which  domi- 
nated the  popular  life  of  England,  affected  America 
also.  Tom  Paine,  the  most  effective  writer  on  the 
Colonial  side  of  the  political  issue,  gained  in  that  way 

1  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  vol.  Pa.,  p.  i'3i  passi7n. 

2  Perry:  History,  vol.  i.  ch.  xxxiii.  / 


196       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IX   THE   COLONIES. 

the  popularity  which  made  his  cheap  and  taking  infi- 
delity spread  among  the  people.  It  never  ran  into  that 
superfluity  of  naughtiness  which  forms  so  strange  a 
chapter  in  the  history  of  modern  England,  but  rather 
produced  a  low  standard  of  righteousness,  and  a  sordid 
manner  of  life. 

The  typical  man  of  his  time  was  Benjamin  Franklin. 
He  had  been  longer  known  and  exercised  more  influ- 
ence in  every  department  of   life  than    any 
B^enjamir      other  man  in  America.     Upon  the  moral  and 
Franklin.        religious  sidc  this  influence  was  wholly  bad. 
His   autobiography  showed   that  the  gross  offences  of 
his    own    early   life    were    repented    of,    not    because 
they  had  been  sinful,  but  because  they  had  been  fool- 
ish.    They  were   to  be  avoided  by  other  young   men, 
not  because  they  were  hateful  to  God  and  left  stains 
upon  the  soul,  but  because  they  hindered  eartlily  suc- 
cess.    The  mean  and  cautious  maxims  of  Poor  Richard 
"passed   into    the    daily    speech    of   the    people,  were 
quoted  in  sermons,  were  printed  on  the  title-pages  of 
pamphlets,  and  used  as  matter  by  the  newspaper  moral- 
ists of  the  day,  and  continued  to  be  read  with  avidity 
even  down  to  tlie  Revolution."  ^     They  contain  no  high 
or  noljle  motive.     They  are  all  the  maxims  of  a  selfish 
man,  and  all  such  as  might  be  kept  with  ease  by  an 
impure  man.     They  tended  to  dry  up  the  springs  of 
relio-ion.     As  the  thoughts  of  a  man  who  was  rather 
non-religious    than  irreligious,   they    fairly    reflect   the 
spirit  of  a  non-religious  age.     Franklin  Avas  the  repre- 
sentative man  of  his  generation.     Unquestionably  great 
»  McMaster:  Life  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  p.  113. 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 


A   SURVEY. 


197 


in  science,  in  statesmanship,  in  diplomacy  and  affairs, 
he  was  utterly  incapable  of  understanding  things  which 
the  world  has  always  deemed  of  prime  importance. 
Nominally  a  Churchman,  he  poked  fun  at  those  who 
sought  the  Episcopate.  A  man  of  letters,  he  produced 
a  paraphrase  of  the  Book  of  Job  which  he  considered  to 
be  better  English  than  King  James's  translation,^  and 
made  a  Prayer-Book  ^  which  could  only  be  of  use  to 
such  as  had  no  sense  of  devotion.  But  his  age  was 
like  him,  and  he  had  largely  made  it  so,  in  its  lack  of 
spiritual  earnestness. 

It  is  difficult  now  to  conceive  how  coarse  and  cruel 
life  in  America  was  a  century  ago.     "  Redemptioners  " 


'    KING   JAMES'S. 

Verse  6.  Now  there  was  a  day 
when  the  sons  of  God  came  to  present 
themselves  before  tlicLord,  and  Satan 
came  also  amonsst  them. 


7.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Satan, 
Whence  comest  thou?  Then  Satan 
answered  the  Lord  and  said,  From  go- 
ing to  and  fro  in  the  earth  and  from 
walking  up  and  down  in  it. 

8.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Satan, 
Hast  tliou  considered  my  servant  Job, 
that  there  is  none  like  him  in  the 
earth,  a  perfect  and  upright  man,  one 
thatfeareth  God  and  esclieweth  evil? 


9.  And  Satan  answered  the  Lord 
and  said,  Doth  Job  fear  God  for 
naught  ? 


2  Beardsley:  Life  of 


FRANKLIN. 

Verse  0.  And  it  being  levee 
day  in  Heaven,  all  God's  no- 
bility came  to  court  to  present 
themselves  before  him  ;  and 
Satan  also  appeared  in  the 
circle,  as  one  of  the  ministry. 

7.  And  God  said  unto  Satan 
You  have  been  some  time  ab- 
sent; where  were  you?  And 
Satan  answered,  I  have  been  at 
my  country  seat,  and  in  differ- 
ent places  visiting  my  friends. 

8.  And  God  said.  Well,  what 
think  you  of  Lord  Job  ?  You 
see  he  is  my  best  friend, -a  per- 
fectly honest  man,  full  of  re- 
spect for  me,  and  avoiding 
everything  that  might  offend 
me. 

9.  And  Satan  answered, 
Does  your  majesty  imagine  that 
his  good  conduct  is  the  effect  of 
personal  attachment  and  affec- 
tion?—  McMastek:  Benjamin 
Franklin,  p.  87. 

Seabury,  p.  243. 


198       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

and   apprentices   went  half  clad,  slept   in  garrets,  ate 
cold    meat  in  the  kitchen,  and  were  acquainted  with 
Coarseness      ^^^^  cudgel.     The  man  who  was  unfortunate 
of  the  age.       enough  to  owe  a  few  dollars  was  sent  to  a  gaol 
so  vile  that  it  cannot  here  be  even  described.    Prison- 
ers for  debt  and  for  crime  were  herded  together  as  re- 
gardless of  sex   as  if   they  had  been  so  man}-  beasts. 
Even   in    Connecticut,    convicts    were    confined    in    an 
underground  cave,  reeking   with  filth,  chained  by   the 
neck  to  iron  bars.     In  Massachusetts  ten  crimes,  and 
in  Delaware  twenty,  were  punishable  by  death.     Tlie 
whole  machinery  of   reform  and  the  administration  of 
charity  with  which  the  Church  is  identified  now,  was 
wanting.      Soldiers    and   sailors  were    flogged  half   to 
death  for  petty  offences.     The  stocks,  the  pillory,  and 
the  whipping-post  stood  in  the  public  square,  and  their 
victims  were  pelted  by  the  rabble.     A  public  hanging 
would  draw  a  crowd  from  miles  around.     Women  who 
had  been  convicted  of  larceny  were  carted  down  Broad- 
way to  the  whipping-post,  and  received  thirty-nine  lashes 
each.i     The   year  the    Revolutionary  War  began,   two 
men  were    burned   at   the   stake  at    Poughkeepsie,  for 
arson.2     Within  thirty  years  of  the  same  date,  men  had 
been  burned,  hung  alive  in  chains,  and  broken  on  the 
wheel,  in  New  York.'^     Education  was  general  among 
the  better  classes  in  the  North,  but  in  the  South  it  was 
neither  possessed  nor  desired.     There,  but  few  gentle- 
men were  able  to  write  an  intelligent  letter,^  and  the 
common  people  could  neither  read  nor  write  at  all. 

'  Lodge:  History  of  English  Colonies,  p.  324. 

2  lb.  p.  324. 

3  lb.  p.  322. 

4  lb.  p.  75. 


A  suuvp:v.  199 

Social  distinctions  were  sharply  drawn.  Rights  of 
precedence  were  as  strennously  insisted  upon  as  at  the 
Social  dis-  French  Couj-t.  The  "  quality  "  were  clearly 
tinctions         marked  off  from  the  common   folk.     In   the 

sharply 

drawn.  New  England  meeting-houses  it  was  still  the 

custom  to  "  dignify  the  congregation."  Grave  and  dis- 
creet persons  assigned  pews  to  the  families  according  to 
their  standing  and  position.  While  this  was  not  done 
formally  in  the  parishes  of  the  Church  of  England,  it 
still  was  substantially.  In  point  of  fact,  the  Church  was 
confined  to  the  aristocracy  either  of  education  or  of  posi- 
tion. In  New  England  it  was  the  former,  in  the  other 
colonies  the  latter.^  It  contained  the  frequenters  of 
the  provincial  governor's  mimic  court,  the  county  fami- 
lies in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  the  collectors  of  the 
ports,  the  great  merchants,  the  judges  and  lawyers,  the 
refined,  cultivated,  and  fashionable. 

Tlie  church  buildings  —  where  they  possessed  any 
architectural  style  at  all  —  were  of  the  petty  elaborate- 
Architect-  ^^^^^  o^  ^ii"  Christopher  Wren.  Himself  the 
"^^-  son  of   a  clergyman  and  the  grandson  of  a 

bishop,  he  had  set  his  mark  upon  chui-ch  architecture, 
which  it  retained  in  America  long  after  it  had  been  out- 
grown in  England.  In  a  collected  group  of  his  English 
parish  churches,  one  can  see  whence  came  the  New- 
England  meeting-house  and  the  colonial  church.^ 

The  services  were  what  would  now  be  deemed  intol- 
erably bare,  cold,  and  lifeless.  The  surplice  was  rarely 
used.    There  were  probably  not  above  a  score  in  America. 

1  Perry:  History,  vol.  i.  p.  44(). 
Geo.  C.  Mason,  architect:  in  Lii)pincott's  Magazine,  Nov.  1885. 


200       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IX  THE   COLONIES. 

The  "gown  and  bands"  was  the  usual  vestment.  The 
"clerk,"  from  his  stall  below  the  reading-desk,  made 
Church  *^^®   responses,  and    announced   the  hymns,^ 

services.  ^yith  the  formula  "  Let  us  sing  to  the  praise 
and  glory  of  God."  The  congregation  sat  while  sing 
ing ;  2  when  the  custom  of  standing  was  introduced  in 
1814,  it  was  considered  a  portentous  ritual  innovation, 
requiring  action  by  the  House  of  Bishops.^  At  the 
Prayers  it  was  not  the  custom  for  any  but  communi- 
cants to  kneel,*  the  others  sitting  in  a  respectful  atti- 
tude. The  Holy  Communion  was  celebrated  quarterly, 
or,  in  a  very  few  places,  monthly;  and  the  proportion  of 
communicants  to  the  congregation  was  very  small. 

Confirmation,  of  course,  could  not  be  had,  and  the 
Confirma-  nature  and  purpose  of  the  rite  had  well-nigh 
tion.  been  forgotten.    Bishop  White  was  never  con- 

firmed at  all,'J  and  it  is  doubtful  if  Bishop  Seabury  was.'' 

1  Ayres:  Life  of  Dr.  Muhlcnbei-g,  pp.  46,  47. 

2  White:  Memoirs,  p.  30. 

3  Perry:  Half-Century  of  Legislation,  p.  434. 

4  Ayres:  Life  of  Dr.  Mvililenberg,  p.  25. 

5  Dr.  Muhlenberg  says:  "  We  recollect  distinctly  Bishop  White  telling 
ns  that  he  had  never  been  confirmed,  and  his  adding,  moreover,  that  the 
English  bishops  were  not  in  the  practice  of  confirming  those  who  came 
over  from  this  country  for  ordination."  Ayres:  Life  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg, 
p.  50. 

c  Dr.  Beardsley,  whose  opinion  must  always  carry  weight,  insists 
strenuously  that  Bishop  Seabury  must  have  been  confirmed,  because  of 
the  stress  he  always  laid  upon  the  rite  after  he  became  a  bishop  himself. 
This  a  priori  argument,  however,  hardly  overcomes  the  facts:  first,  that 
there  is  no  record  of  or  allusion  to  his  confirmation;  and  second,  that  the 
bishop  who  ordained  liim  was  the  most  unlikely  of  all  to  insist  upon  a 
neglected  ordinance. 

"  Thomas  of  Lincoln  is  spoken  of  as  a  worthy  man,  but  too  fond  of  the 
company  of  people  of  rank,  and  sadly  forgetful  of  his  promises.  He 
squinted  terribly,  and  was  very  deaf;  but  his  never-failing  humor  and 
facetiousness  made  him  an  amusing  companion.  George  XL  delighted  in 
his  society,  and  brought  him  over,  with  promises  of  promotion,  from  his 
chaplaincy  in  Hamburg."  Abbey:  English  Church  and  its  Bishops,  vol. 
ii.  p.  75. 


A  SURVEY.  201 

A    favorite    mode    of    raising    the    money  to   build 
churches  was  b}^  lotteries,  which  were  conducted  under 
State  control.i     The  clergy  were  never  spoken  of  as 
"  priests,"  but  always  as  clergymen  or  ministers,  and, 
if  the  order  was  meant  to  be  designated,  as  Presbyters 
or  Deacons.     Their  stipends  were,  for  the   most  part, 
painfully  meagre.     Probably  there  were  not  more  than 
five  which  reached  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  a  year. 
The    minister   at   Lancaster,    Pa.,    complains    that    he 
cannot  possibly  support  himself  and  family  of  eleven 
persons  on  less  than  one  hundred   pounds   annually.^ 
To  take  away  from  such  ill-paid  clergy,  in  part,  at  least, 
their  cruel  anxiety  for  the  future  of  their  families,  a 
society  had   been  formed    in  1769,  called,  in  the  long- 
winded  fashion  of  the  time,  "  The  Corporation  for  the 
Relief  of  Widows  and  Children  of  Clergymen  in  the 
Communion  of  the  Church  of  England  in  America."  ^ 
At  the  outbreak   of  the  war   the  society  already  pos- 
sessed a  fund  of  nearly  fifteen  thousand  pounds.    When 
the   war  had  ended,  this  society   became  the  meeting- 
place  of  the  scattered  parishes,  and  the  rallying-point 
for  the  disorganized  Church. 

1  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  vol.  Pa.  pp.  37i,  376. 

2  lb.  p.  371.  .        , , 

3  Perry:  History,  vol.  i.  p.  fi47,  where  an  excellent  sketch  of  this  noble 
oharity  is  given  by  the  late  John  William  Wallace,  LL.D. 


202       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE  COLONIES. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE    WAR    OF    INDEPENDENCE. 

In  1765  the  treaty  which  shut  the  French  out  of 
North  America  was  signed  by  England  and  France. 
''  Well,"  said  the  French  minister  as  he  signed  it,  "■  so 
we  are  gone  ;  England  will  go  next."  His  prophecy 
was  quite  correct.  It  had  been  fear  of  the  French  and 
their  savage  allies  on  the  western  frontier  that  kept  the 
colonies  from  bringing  their  differences  with  England 
to  a  settlement  long  ago.  Now  that  danger  was  gone. 
Before  that  they  had  two  foes  to  consider,  now  they  had 
but  one.  The  questions  at  issue  Avere  fundamental. 
Theinevita-  The  war  of  the  Revolution,  like  that  of  the 
bie  conflict.  Great  Rebellion,  was  one  of  the  inevitables. 
The  social,  the  political,  and,  above  all,  the  commercial 
interests  of  the  two  countries,  were  radically  opposed. 
Absolute  submission,  peaceable  separation,  or  fight,  were 
the  only  alternatives.  Men  shut  their  eyes  to  the  situ- 
ation, and  sought  diligently  for  some  fourth  course,  but 
there  was  none.  In  ten  years  from  the  French  peace 
the  issue  was  made  up.  Virginia  and  INIassachusetts, 
the  two  oldest  colonies,  where  the  seeds  of  strife  had 
had  longest  time  to  grow  and  ripen,  led  the  American 
side. 

Though  the  issue  seems  simple  now,  in  the  light 
of   its    result,  it  did   not   seem   so    then.      The    popu- 


THE   WAR   OF   INDErEXDENCE.  203 

lace  divided  itself  roughly  into  three  classes.  First, 
the  great  mass  of  the  people,  who  were  inert,  apathetic, 
dreaded  the  possible  calamity  of  war,  and  hoped  that 
somebody  would  hit  upon  a  way  of  adjusting  the  diffi- 
culties peaceably.  Second,  the  small  party  of  ultra 
"Tories,"  who  could  not  conceive  of  opposition  to  the 
powers  that  be,  and  looked  for  relief  from  the  clemency 
of  the  king.  Third,  the  small  party  of  patriots  who 
looked  forward  to,  and  through,  the  coming  struggle, 
and  burned  to  have  the  question  settled,  by  peaceable 
measures  if  possible,  by  war  if  need  be. 

But  in  such  cases  events  move  rapidly,  and  precipi- 
tate popular  judgment.  As  men's  passions  grew  more 
Equal  division  ^"^^  "^^^'^  engaged,  these  two  parties  made 
of  parties,  forays  upon  the  passive  mass,  and  bore  away 
recruits  into  either  camp.  When  the  two  ultimate  parties 
were  finally  made  up  they  were  nearly  equally  balanced, 
and  remained  so  until  the  fortunes  of  war  weakened  the 
Tory  side.  Even  in  Massachusetts  a  majority  were  at 
first  opposed  to  the  war.  The  bill  which  gave  it  sanc- 
tion was  twice  defeated  by  the  Legislature  before  it  was 
finally  passed.  In  Connecticut  the  opposition  was  still 
more  numerous.^  In  New  York  the  parties  were  so 
equally  divided  that  when  the  Provincial  Congress 
chanced  to  receive  notices  upon  the  same  day,  in  1775, 
that  General  Washington  was  about  to  cross  the  Hud- 
son on  his  way  to  the  headquarters  at  Cambridge,  and 
that  General  Tryon  had  arrived  in  the  harbor  and  was 
about  to  disembark,  they  ordered  the  colonel  command- 
ing the  militia  so  to  dispose  of  his  forces  that  he  could 

'  Sabiue:  Loyalists  in  the  American  Revolution,  vol.  i.  p.  27. 


204       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IX   THE   COLONIES. 

receive  "■  either  the  General  or  Governor  Tryon,  which- 
ever should  first  arrive,  and  wait  upon  them  both  as 
well  as  circumstances  would  allow."  ^  In  the  far  South 
the  situation  was  the  same.  The  South  Carolina  patriots 
and  Tories  were  equally  matched  in  numbers,  and  drifted 
into  a  savage  enmity  against  each  other,  which  was 
marked  throughout  the  war  by  atrocities  in  which  each 
side  outdid  the  other.^  In  the  early  years  of  the  war,  as 
many  as  forti/  thousatid  Tories  enlisited  in  the  king's 
forces.^  But  a  far  larger  number,  unable  to  stem  the 
Exodus  of  popular  current,  and  finding  their  lives  in  the 
Tories.  colonies  intolerable,  left  the  country.     They 

went  back  to  England,  emigrated  to  Canada,  to  Nova 
Scotia,  to  the  Barbadoes,  and  to  the  Spanish  settlements. 
Eleven  hundred  left  Boston  in  a  single  day.^  They  in- 
cluded all  classes  of  people,  —  members  of  the  council, 
merchants,  clergymen,  farmers,  mechanics,  traders.  The 
mother  and  sister  of  Gouverneur  Morris  took  the  Tory 
side,  and  left  the  country.  Ten  thousand  left  New 
York  alone  at  the  time  of  its  evacuation.  Those  who 
remained  were  roughly  handled.  They  became  the 
target  of  all  popular  abuse,  were  lampooned,  defrauded 
of  their  debts,  mobbed,  shot  at  from  thickets,  tarred  and 
feathered,  smothered  in  smoke-houses  like  flitches  of 
bacon,  had  their  cattle  killed  and  their  houses  burned,  — 
and,  where  they  had  the  opportunity,  retaliated  in  kind. 
The  significant  thing  to  us  is  that,  as  a  rule,  they  were 
Episcopalians.     The  Presbyterians  and  Baptists  in  the 

•  Sparks:  Life  of  Washington. 

2  Sabine:  Loyalists,  vol.  i.  p.  42. 

2  Roosevelt:  W' inning  of  the  West,  vol.  ii.  ch.  ix. 

3  Sabine:  Loyalists,  vol.  i.  p-  71. 

*  lb.,  vol.  i.  p.  25. 


THE   WAR  OF   INDEPENDENCE.  205 

Southern,  and,  with  but  fe^y  exceptions,^  the  Puritans 
in  the  Eastern  colonies,  threw  themselves  with  enthusi- 
asm into  the  quarrel,  on  the  American  side.^     The  posi- 
tion of  the  Churchmen  was  perplexing.    They 

Lay  Church-  t-i       i        i      i 

men's  posi-  were  more  closely  bound  to  i.ngland  than 
^'°°"  were  their  dissenting  fellow-citizens.    A  large 

proportion  of  the  laity,  and  almost  the  whole  of  the 
clergy,  remained  steadfast  in  their  allegiance  to  the 
Crown  until  the  end.  But  the  situations  of  the  laity  and 
the  clergy  were  not  the  same.  The  layman  was  attached 
to  the  English  Church  only  on  its  spiritual,  and  not  its 
secular  side.  The  clergyman  was  bound  by  a  double 
bond.  Laymen  whose  political  beliefs  led  them  that 
way  could  at  the  same  time  say  their  prayers  from  the 
Prayer-Book  and  fight  against  the  king.  They  violated 
no  sanction  of  conscience  or  previous  obligation  in  so 
doing.  From  this  class  came  an  extraordinary  propor- 
tion of  the  leaders  of  the  Revolution.  Washington  and 
Patrick  Henry  were  devout  communicants.  Franklin 
was  d  Churchman,  so  far  as  he  had  any  religion  at  all. 
The  Morrises,  Livingston,  Sterling,  Jay,  Richard  Henry 
Lee,  Madison,  INIorgan,  the  Pendletons,  and  the  Pinck- 
neys,  are  but  examples  of  the  men  whom  the  Cliurch 
contributed  to  the  American  side. 

But  the  position  of  the  clergy  was  vastly  different. 
Situation  of  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^"^^  place,  a  large  proportion  were 
the  clergy.  English  by  birth  and  education.  Nearly  all, 
except  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  were  missionaries  of 
the  "  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  For- 

1  Like  Dr.  Byles,  for  example. 

2  Baird:  Religion  in  Aiuerica,  p.  215. 


206       THE   ENGLISH   CHUIlCn    IN    THE   COLONIES. 

eign  Parts."  Their  livelihood  was  at  stake.  At  any 
sign  of  ••'  disloyalty"  their  stipends  would  be  cut  off,^  and 
starvation  would  confront  them.  But,  above  all,  each 
one,  at  his  ordination,  had  definitely  sworn  perpetual 
allegiance  to  the  king.  This  oath  was  the  insuperable 
diflficulty.  It  was  recorded  with  the  Bishop  of  London, 
and  also  in  their  own  consciences.  A  very  small  class, 
insignificant  in  number  but  great  in  character  and  influ- 
ence, believed  themselves  to  have  been  absolved  by  the 
authority  of  circumstances.  They  reasoned  with  them- 
selves that  the  ordination  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king 
was  but  the  historic  declaration  that  priests  must  be 
obedient  and  docile  citizens ;  that  it  did  not  mean  liter- 
ally to  King  George,  but  to  the  "  powers  that  be,"  for 
which  the  king  there  stood;  that  when  those  powers 
were  transferred,  by  forces  with  which  they  had  nothing 
to  do,  to  another  rule  under  which  they  found  themselves 
living,  their  allegiance  was  due  to  the  new  authority. 
They  argued  that  the  situation  here  was  the  same  that 
had  been  in  England  at  the  Revolution  of  1688.  The 
great  mass  of  the  bishops  and  clergy  had  then  trans- 
ferred their  allegiance  from  the  de  jure  to  the  de  facto 
king.  Why  should  they  not  make  a  similar  transfer  of 
obedience  to  the  Republic? 

Being  thus  convinced,  sturdy  Dr.  Muhlenberg  accepted 
Patriot  ^^^^    colonel's    commission,   donned    his    new 

clergy.  uniform,  put  on  his  gown  over  it,  preached 

an  earnest  sermon  to  his  thronged  congregation  upon  the 
duty  of  the  hour ;  then  laid  his  gown  over  the  reading- 

1  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  vol.  Mass.  pp.  602,  G09. 
1  White:  Memoirs,  p.  13. 


THE   WAR   OF   INDEPENDENCE.  207 

desk,  marched  out  of  church,  stood  at  the  door  with  a 
recruiting  sergeant's  roll  in  hand,  and  enlisted  a  whole 
battalion  of  Continental  troops  on  the  spot.^  Dr.  White 
of  Philadelphia  became  Chaplain  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  and  never  deviated  from  the  patriotic  choice 
he  had  made.  Dr.  Provoost  of  New  York  was  so  un- 
compromising a  patriot  that  he  could  not  bring  himself, 
in  after  days,  to  forgive  the  Tory  Bishop  Seabury.  But 
this  sentiment  was  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  clergy 
of  the  middle  colonies.  It  found  its  formal  expression 
in  a  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  London  in  1775,  in  which 
the  clergy  declare  that  "  the  people  will  feel  and  judge 
for  themselves  in  matters  affecting  their  own  civil  hap- 
piness ;  and  were  we  capable  of  any  attempt  which  might 
have  the  appearance  of  drawing  them  to  what  they  think 
would  be  a  slavish  resignation  of  their  rights,  it  would 
be  destructive  of  ourselves,  as  well  as  the  Church  of 
which  we  are  ministers.  It  is  but  justice  to  our  supe- 
riors, and  your  Lordship  in  particular,  to  declare  that 
our  consciences  would  not  permit  us  to  injure  the 
rigrhts  of  this  country,  in  Avhich  we  are  to  leave  our 
families."  ^ 

But  the  majority  of  the  clerg}^  could  not  look  at  the 
case  after  this  fashion.  They  could  not  lift  the  obliga- 
Lovaiist  ^^^^^  °^  ^^^^  ordination  oath  off  their  consciences 
clergy.  even  if  they  had  wished,  —  and  they  did  not 

wish.     They  were  quite  ready  to  join  in  any  respectful 
address  to  Great  Britain  for  a  redress  of  the  colonial 

'  Ayres:  Life  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  p.  4. 
2  Perry:  Historical  Collections,  vol.    Pa.  p.  472. 

■2  The  signers  were  Richard   Peters,    William   Smith,  Jacob  Duche, 
Thomas  Coombe,  William  Stringer,  and  William  White. 


208       THE   ENGLISH    CHURCH    IN   THE   COLONIES. 

grievances,  but  in  their  hearts  they  did  not  regard  these 
grievances  as  being  so  very  intolerable,  after  all.     They 
looked  at  the  situation  with  English  eyes.    They  fondly 
hoped  for,  and  urged,  some  amicable  settlement  of  the 
contest.     If  no  such  settlement  could  be  reached,  then 
the  same  authority  which  taught  them  to  fear  God  also 
bade  them  to  "honor  the  king."     Seabury  and  Inglis 
could  not  quiet  their  consciences  by  what  they  thought 
the  shallow  casuistry  of  White  and  Provoost.     Above 
all  things,  they  prayed  to  be  delivered  from  being  com- 
pelled to  choose  sides  in  the  issue  now  joined.     But  this 
could  not  be.     Congress  appointed  July  20,  1775,  for  a 
day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  and  called  upon  all  Christians 
to  assemble  at  their  accustomed  places  of  worship.    The 
Church  clergy  were  forced  into  a  corner.     To  disregard 
the  proclamation  entirely  would  openly  fix  them  in  the 
opposition.    To  publicly  pray  for  the  success  of  the  king 
and  royal  arms  would  be  too  inuch  to  venture.     Pray 
against  them  they  could  not.     But  they  must  call  the 
congregation  together  and  have  a  service  of  some  sort. 
Some  said  they  were  entirely  ready  to  do  so,  for  surely 
never  were  times  when  fasting  and  prayer  were  more 
needed.     All  but  four  of  the  clergy  in  the  country,  of 
whom  Dr.   Seabury  was  one,   opened  their  churches.^ 
But  their  real  sentiments  came   out  in  their  sermons. 
The  burden  of  them  was  compromise.     If  that  could  not 
be  done,  then,  it  was  intimated  rather  than  said,  submis- 
sion would  be  the  duty. 

The   popular   indignation   was    profound.      Laymen 
declared  that  the  clergy  did  not  voice  the  real  feeling 

1  Perry :  Historical  Collections,  vol.  Pa.  p.  479. 


THE  WAR   OF   INDEPENDENCE.  209 

of  Churchmen.  Newspapers  reviled  them  as  Tories, 
traitors,  and  British  emissaries.  "•  No  more  passive 
obedience,"  was  chalked  upon  the  church-doors. ^  One 
minister  writes  to  England:  "It  is  urged  as  a  just 
cause  of  complaint  against  one  of  the  militia  captains, 
that  he  had  lugged  his  companj^  to  church  on  a  fast  da}^, 
to  hear  that  old  wretch  ^meaning  me  f)  preach,  who  was 
always  an  enemy  to  the  present  measures."  2  The 
Episcopal  clergy  stood  condemned  in  the  eyes  of  the 
party  who  were  to  carry  through  the  War  for  Inde- 
Sufferings  of  pendeuce  and  build  the  Republic.  The  sen- 
the  clergy.  tcnce  was  harshly  carried  into  execution. 
The  Connecticut  clergy  assembled  at  New  Haven  and 
determined  to  suspend  all  public  services,  and  wait  for 
better  times.^  Those  of  New  York  retired  to  tlie 
seclusion  of  private  life,  exiled  themselves  to  Nova 
Scotia,  or  moved  within  the  British  lines.  Dr.  Seabury 
became  chaplain  to  a  regiment  of  British  infantry. 
The  Church  in  Virginia  was  formally  disestablished  by 
the  colonial  government.^  But  neither  seclusion,  insig- 
nificance, nor  high  character  was  able  to  save  the  clergy 
from  the  fury  of  the  populace.  Their  churches  were 
wrecked,  defiled,  and  burned.  Their  property  was  con- 
fiscated. Their  cattle  Avere  killed.  They  were  hooted, 
pelted,  arrested,  imprisoned,  ducked  in  the  pond,  shot 
at,  starved,  and  banished.  The  baneful  old  alliance  of 
the  Church  with  the  State  here  produced  its  inevitable 
result.     The   Church,  which  in  itself  was  not  disliked 

1  Perry:   Historical  Collections,  vol.  Pa.  p.  481. 

2  lb.:  vol.  Pa  p.  481. 

3  Beardsley:  History  of  the  Church  in  Conn.,  vol.  i.  p.  318. 

4  Baird:  Religion  in  America,  p.  220. 


210       THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH   IN   THE   COLONIES. 

by  Americans,  was  wrecked  because  its  fortunes  were 
bound  to  a  State  which  they  hated, ^ 

1  The  following  partial  list,  compiled  chiefly  from  Sabine's  "  Loyal- 
ists in  the  Revolution,"  will  give  an  idea  of  the  way  the  Church  was 
devastated  during  the  war  :— 
Rev.  Mr.  Adams,  York,  Pa.;  soused  three  times  in  a  pond  and  warned 

to  leave. 
Rev.  H.  Addison,  Md.;  banished,  estate  confiscated,  of  value  of  thirty 

thousand  pounds. 
Rev.  John  Agncw,  Suffolk,  Va. ;  banished. 

Rev.  John  Andrews,  INIaster  Episcopal  Academy,  Conn. ;  banished. 
Rev.  East  Apthorp,  Cambridge,  Mass.;  banished. 
Rev.  Dr.  Auchmuty,  Rector  Trinity  Church,  New  York;  church,  reo* 

tory,  and  school  burned;  loss  twenty  thousand  pounds. 
Rev.  Ephraini  Averj',  Rye;  cattle  killed,  banished. 
Rev.  Luke  Babcock,  Phillipsburg,  N.Y. ;  cattle  killed;  robbed,  died. 
Rev.  Jacob  Bailey,  Dresden,  Md. ;  robbed,  starved,  banished. 
Rev.  Thomas  Barton,  York,  Pa.;  imprisoned  two  years,  died. 
Rev.  Daniel  Batewell,  York,  Pa.;  imprisoned,  died. 
Rev.    Abraham   Beach,    John    Beach,  Conn.;   harried,   shot    at,   cattle 

killed. 
Rev.  John  Beardsley,  Conn.;  robbed,  banished. 
Rev.  George  Bissett,  Newport,  R.I. ;  church  wrecked,  banished. 
Rev.  Jonathan  Beach,  Annapolis,  Md. ;  imprisoned  two  years. 
Rev.  John  Bowie,  Md. ;  imprisoned  two  years. 
Rev.  John  Brunskill,  Va. :  driven  away. 
Rev.  John  Bullman,  Cliarleston;  banished. 
Rev.  Mather  Byles,  Cambridge;  banished. 
Rev.  Henry  Carver,  King's  Chapel,  Boston;  banished. 
Rev.  William  Clark,  Dedham  ;  imprisoned,  banislied. 
Rev.  Richard  Clark,  Charleston  ;  banished. 
Rev.  Samuel  Cook,  Shrewsbury,  N.J.;  driven  away. 
Rev.  Thomas  Coombe,  Philadelphia;  imprisoned,  banished. 
Rev.  Mr.  Cooper,  Charleston  ;  driven  away  by  his  parishioners. 
Rev.  Jacob  Duche,    Philadelphia;    first   chaplain   of  Congress,  turned 

Tory,  banished. 
Rev.  Edward  Edmonston,  Baltimore;  fled. 
Rev.  John  Eversfield,    Md. ;    tried,   discharged   as  "too  old  to  do  any 

hurt." 
Rev.  Samuel  Fayerweather,  R.I.;  "silenced." 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Fisher,  Salem,  ISLiss. ;  imprisoned,  banished. 
Rev.  John  Graves,  Providence;  "silenced." 
Rev.  Matthew  Graves,  New   London,  Conn.;  driven   away  by   his  own 

people. 
Rev.  Charles  Inglis,  Rector  Trinity  Church,  New  Y'ork ;  warned  not  to 

read  prayers  for  the  king;  persisted  in  doing  so;  an  infantry  company 

entered  church  during  service,  with  beat  of  drum,  to  overawe  him; 


THE   WAR   OF   INDEPENDENCE.  211 

but  he  read  the  prayers;  compelled  to  flee;  his  property  confiscated; 

became  first  Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia. 
Rev.  Thomas  Johnson,  Charlotte  Co.,  Va. ;  "  with  a  great  bowl  of  grog 

in  his  hands  drank  success  to  the  British  arms; "'  banished. 
Rev.  Jeremiah  Leaming,  Stratford,  Conn. ;    his  portrait  nailed  to  the 

sign-post,  head  downward;  imprisoned;  left  to  suffer  from  cold  and 

nakedness;  contracted  hip  disease ;  lamed  for  life. 
Rev.  William  McGilchrist,  Salem,  Mass.;  "  silenced." 
Rev.  Alexander  McCrae,  Littleton,  Va. ;   mobbed,  whipped,  threatened 

with  death;  but  persisted  and  stayed. 
Rev.  Mr.  Micklejohu,  N.C. ;  banished. 
Rev.  Richard  Moseley,  Litchfield,  Conn.;  banished. 
Rev.  Harry  Monroe,  Albany;  banished  to  Canada. 
Rev.  Samuel  Peters,  Hebron,  Conn.;  mobbed,  stripped,  banished. 
Rev.  Jonathan  Adell,  N.J. ;  arrested,  escaped. 
Rev.  Joseph  Reed,  Newbern;  ejected  by  his  people. 
Rev.  Wiuwood  Sergeant,  Cambridge,  Mass.;  banished. 
Rev.  John  Scott,  Everston,  Mass.;  arrested,  banished. 
Rev.  Samuel  Seabury,  D.D.,    Westchester,  N.Y. ;  threatened,  shot  at, 

imprisoned,  took  refuge  in  British  lines;  made  maps  of  Long  Island 

for  the  British  army,  accepted  British  chaplaincy. 
Rev.  John  Stuart,  missionary  to  the  Mohawks;  arre.sted,  chapel  defiled, 

a  bottle  of  rum  emptied  over  the  altar,  banished. 
Rev.   Epenetus    Townsend,    North    Salem,   N.Y.;   arrested,    banished, 

drowned  at  sea. 
Rev.  John   Troutbeck,   King's  Chapel,  Boston;    banished,  captured  by 

pirates. 
Rev.  Roger  Viets,  Simsbury,  Conn.;  fined  twenty  pounds,  imprisoned, 

banished. 
Rev.  William  Walters,  Trinity  Church,  Boston;  banished,  property  of 

seven  thousand  pounds  confiscated. 
Rev.  John  Weeks,  Marblehead,  Mass. ;  banished,  died  of  poverty  and 

exposure. 
Rev.  Isaac  Wilkins,  D.D.,  Westchester,  N.Y.;  banished,  his  writings 

dressed  in  tar  and  buzzard's  feathers,  and  burned. 
Rev.  John  Wingate,  Orange  Co.,  Va. ;  books  burned. 
Rev.  Edward  Winslow,  Quincy,  Mass.;  banished. 
Rev.  John  Wiswall,  Falmouth,  Va. ;  banished. 


PART    IT. 

THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH  IN 
THE    UNITED    STATES. 


PART    IL 

THE  FBOTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH  IN 
THE   UNITED   STATES. 


CHAPTER   I. 

GATHERING   UP   THE   FRAGMENTS. 

When  the  verdict  of  the  trial  by  war  was  reached 
and  the  independence  of  the  Colonies  recognized  by 
The  desola-  treaty,  the  English  Church  in  America  ceased 
tion.  to  exist.     As  a  Church  which  was   content 

to  regard  itself  as  a  department  of  the  English  state,  it 
could  have  no  being  where  that  state  was  not.  Its 
fragments  lay  scattered  from  Portsmouth  to  Savannah. 
The  ligature  which  had  fastened  these  parishes  together 
and  tied  them  to  the  see  of  London  was  now  cut,  and 
they  fell  asunder  like  so  many  beads  when  the  string  is 
broken.  They  had  all  been  wasted  by  war,  and  many 
had  perished  during  the  last  ten  years  from  sheer  neg- 
lect. Their  members,  being  generally  loyalists,  had 
been  proscribed  during  the  conflict,  and  were  now 
under  a  political  and  social  ban.  They  had  hoped 
that  England  would  guarantee  their  rights  in  the  stipu- 
lations of  the  treaty.  They  found  to  their  horror  that 
she  had  abandoned  them  in  the  most  cold-blooded  man- 


216  THE   PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

ner.i  They  had  been  robbed,  outraged,  their  property 
confiscated,  and  their  persons  roughly  handled,  and 
now  they  not  only  found  that  they  had  no  redress,  but 
that  they  were  again  confronted  with  a  new  peril. 
During  the  war  the  colonists'  hands  had  been  full  with 
the  foreign  enemy.  Now  that  he  had  withdrawn,  they 
Treatment  of  proposed  to  make  a  finish  of  the  wretches  wno 
Tories.  j^r^^   given   him   aid   and  comfort.     General 

Greene,  Hamilton,  Jay,  Patrick  Henrj^,  Gadsden,  and 
Marion  championed  their  cause  in  vain.^  In  spite  of 
their  arguments  that  it  would  be  unjust  and  impolitic 
now  to  proscribe  men  for  opinions  which  twenty  years 
ago  had  been  held  by  everybody,^  the  passions  of  the 
populace  ran  so  high  that  they  set  about  deliberately  to 
extirpate  the  hated  Tories.  They  were  denounced  as 
monsters  who  had  put  themselves  beyond  the  pale  of 
mercy  or  even  justice.  Then  set  in  a  period  of  per- 
sonal violence,  social  persecution,  and  legal  repression, 
which  is  not  a  pleasant  page  in  American  history.* 
The  leading  patriots,  men  who  had  given  their  best 
counsel  and  their  best  blood  for  the  American  cause, 
tried  in  vain  to  stem  the  tide.  They  were  themselves 
swept  under  by  it,  and  some  of  them  well-nigh  ruined. 
Some  of  the  Tories  indeed  had  no  right  to  hope  for  any- 
thing. The  score  against  them  for  their  deeds  in  the 
troubled  times  was  so  long  and  ugly  that  all  who  bore 
the  same  party  name  with  them  were  taxed  to  pay  it. 
Many  abandoned  everything  and  fled  from  the  storm. 

1  McMaster:  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  109. 
'  Sabine:  Loyalists,  vol.  i.  p.  89. 

2  General  Greene. 

*  McMaster:  vol.  i.  pp.  109-130. 


GATHERING   UP   THE   FRAGMENTS.  217 

They  embarked  in  the  British  men-of-war  and  were  car- 
ried back  to  England.  Numbers  moved  to  Florida  and 
the  Spanish  possessions.^  Still  more  went  to  Nova 
Scotia  and  the  Bermudas.  In  this  final  emigration  the 
weakened  Church  was  still  further  depleted.  It  w^as 
left  without  reputation,  without  money,  without  men. 

^     ,  The    hostility   to  it  as  a    Church,   however. 

Popular  /  '  ' 

opinion  of  the  rapidly  subsided.  The  fear  and  hatred  with 
which  it  had  been  so  long  regarded  as  a  pos- 
sible source  of  political  danger,  disappeared  almost  at 
once  upon  the  achievement  of  independence.^  As  a 
religious  sect,  it  was  conceived  to  be  practically  defunct. 
It  was  regarded  as  a  "  piece  of  heavy  baggage  which 
the  British  had  left  behind  them  when  they  evacuated 
New  York  and  Boston."  ^ 

Now,  what  shall  be  done  with  the  thrice  broken  frag- 
ments of  the  Colonial  Church  of  England  ?  What 
hands  shall  gather  them  up  and  put  them  together? 
Upon  what  principles  shall  the  new  Church  to  be 
formed  from  them  be  organized  ? 

The  first  sign  of  movement  among  the  broken  mem- 
bers of  the  body  showed  itself  in  Maryland.  There  had 
always  been  a  marked  difference  in  temper,  habits,  and 
mode  of  life,  among  the  Eastern,  Middle,  and  Southern 
colonies.  This  difference  was  even  more  plainly  marked 
Three  mo-  in  ecclesiastical  things.  It  became  most  sig- 
ing^reorgan-'  ^^i^cant  in  the  reconstruction  period  now  be- 
ization.  fQj.g  yg^     jj^  q^q]^  section  a  different  motive 

and  purpose  dominated  the  men  who  set  about  to  rebuild 
the  Church. 

1  McMaster :  History  of  tlie  United  States,  vol.  1.  p.  111. 

2  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabary,  pp.  91,  93. 

'  An  expre.ssion  of  Bishop  Williams,  of  Connecticut. 


218  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

In  Virginia  and  Maryland  the  uppermost  thought 
was  to  save  the  endowments  of  which  the  Church  of 
England  had  stood  possessed  before  the  war.  To  res- 
cue and  hold  these,  an  organization  must  be  created 
which  could  have  a  standing  before  the  law  in  the  new 
government. 

In  New  England  the  dominant  purpose  was  to  save 
the  Church's  ideal ;  to  guarantee  its  apostolic  order ; 
to  establish  in  its  completeness  that  primitive  doctrine 
and  discipline  for  the  sake  of  which  many  of  its  clergy 
had  come  out  of  Presbyterianism  at  great  cost. 

In  the  Middle  colonies  the  leaders  set  clearly  before 
themselves  the  task  to  organize  a  National  Church,  an 
Episcopal  foundation  which  would  be  to  all  its  members 
what  the  federal  government  then  in  process  of  con- 
struction would  be  to  its  citizens.  Of  the  three  ideas 
Dr.  Smith  of  Maryland,  Dr.  Seabury  of  Connecticut, 
and  Dr.  White  of  Pennsylvania,  became  the  several 
champions.  The  first  failed,  partly  through  the  faults 
of  its  leader,  and  still  more  because  the  thing  aimed  at 
was  impracticable:  the  other  two  succeeded,  and  the 
combination  of  their  plans  produced  the  Church  sub- 
stantially as  it  has  continued  to  be. 

The  question  which  first  pressed  in  Virginia  and 
Maryland  was  a  practical  one.  Who  now  should  ad- 
The  South-  minister  upon  the  Colonial  Church's  estate  ? 
ern  attempt.  ^p}^g  property  was  a  valuable  one.  It  con- 
sisted not  only  of  churches,  glebes,  parsonages,  and 
landed  endowments,  but  also  of  the  right  to  the  pro- 
ceeds of  taxation  for  religious  objects.  Who  was  its 
owner?     It  was  contended  on  the  one  hand  that  the 


GATHERING   UP   THE  FKAGMENTS.  219 

property  had  been  created  by  the  state  ;  that  the  state, 
while  the  state  was  Eiighxnd,  had  only  held  the  prop- 
erty in  trust  for  the  public  religious  weal ;  that  a  new 
state  was  now  substituted  for  the  old  one  ;  that  the  aiew 
one  was  seized  of  all  the  power  and  right  in  the  prem- 
ises which  the  old  one  had  possessed.  But  it  was 
agreed  on  all  hands  that  in  the  new  state  there  should 
be  no  religious  establishment.  What,  then,  should  it  do 
with  the  Church  property  which  it  found  on  its  hands  ? 
Should  it  resume  it  and  secularize  it  ?  —  retain  it  as  a 
trust  for  the  benefit  of  all  religious  denominations  ?  — 
turn  it  over  in  fee  simple  to  the  representatives  of  the 
Colonial  Episcopal  Church  ?  If  the  latter,  who  Avas  its 
representative  ?  The  Bishop  of  London  ?  —  that  was 
absurd  on  the  face  of  it.  The  various  parishes?  —  they 
were  not  independent  legal  corporations,  but  only  sub- 
divisions of  an  empire  which  was  now  extinct.  In  any 
case  the  question  of  how  to  dispose  of  the  proceeds  of 
taxation  would  still  remain. 

The  Churchmen's  feeling  was  that  the  property  was 
theirs  absolutely ;  they  would  not  agree  that  the  state 
had  simply  held  it  in  trust  for  them ;  they  insisted  that 
it  had  been  a  gift  outright.  But  the  practical  difficulty 
could  not  be  evaded.  There  was  no  organized  Church 
on  the  ground  which  could  take  it  over,  even  if  it  were 
offered.  Maryland  had  indeed,  after  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  "  secured  to  the  Church  of  England  all 
the  glebes,  churches,  chapels,  and  other  property  owned 
by  her,"  ^  but  tlie  question  now  was,  who  represents  tlie 
Church  of  England  ?  ^ 

1  Hawks:  Ecclesiastical  Contributions,  vol.  Md.  p.  288. 

2  Hawks:  Ecclesiastical  Contributions,  vol.  Va.  p.  224  et  seq. 


220  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

One  of  the  most  sagacious  men  of  his  age,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  William  Smith,  previously  rector  of  the  Philadel- 
phia College,  and  now  President  of  Washington  College, 
lived  in  Maryland.  He  foresaw,  Avhile  the  war  was 
raging,  that  this  question  would  iiave  to  be  met,  and 
that  upon  its  right  answer  would  depend  the  Church's 
temporal  fortunes  in  that  State.  In  1780  he  called  a 
conference  of  clergy  and  laymen  to  consider  the  matter. 
His  purpose  was  to  organize  the  disjecta  meynhra  into  a 
body  corporate  which  could  have  a  local  habitation  and 
a  name.  He  gave  it  the  name  himself.^  He  called  it 
The  Church  ^^^^  "  Pi'otcstant  Episcopal  Church."  This 
named.  name,  which  still  obtains,  does  not  seem  to 

have  been  the  result  of  any  special  thought  or  delibera- 
tion, but  Avas  adopted  unconsciously  as  the  title  which 
best  expressed  the  fact.  They  could  not  have  called  it 
"  the  Church  "  in  any  exclusive  sense,  for  their  inten- 
tion was  to  approach  the  Legislature  which  had  just 
declared  that  it  was  not  the  Church  in  that  sense. 
They  could  not  call  it  "  the  American  Church,"  for 
there  was  no  American  Church.  To  call  it  "  the  Cath- 
olic Church  "  would  have  been  in  the  face  of  a  common 
usage  which  had  already  given  that  title  to  another 
body.  But,  in  common  with  all  the  Churchmen  of 
their  time,  they  assumed  that  they  were  Protestant ;  — 
Episcopacy  was  their  differentiate.  They  combined 
the  two  facts  and  gave  the  Church  its  present  name. 

The  result  of  the  conference  was  to  recommend  that 
the  action  already  taken  by  the   State,  allowing  each 

1  Smith:  Life  of  Dr.  William  Smith,  vol.  ii.  p.  39. 
Cf.  Perry :  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  5. 


GATHERING   UP   THE   FRAGMENTS.  221 

denomination  to  receive  the  benefits  accruing  from  taxa- 
tion, should  be  accepted ;  and  that,  in  addition,  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  parishes  should  be  allowed  "  to 
lay  rates  on  pews,"  or  otherwise  to  increase  their 
revenue.^ 

This  was  while  the  war  still  dragged  its  length  along, 
and  the  Legislature  took  no  action  upon  their  recom- 
mendation. When  peace  had  come,  Dr.  Smith  induced 
Governor  Paca,  his  old  pupil  at  the  Philadelphia  Col- 
lege, to  bring  the  matter  forward  in  his  message.  At 
the  same  time,  in  conjunction  with  another  minister,  he 
asked  leave  to  call  a  formal  conference.-  This  conven- 
Organization  *^°"'  which  met  at  Anuapolis,  in  1783,  con- 
in  Maryland,  tained  eighteen  clergymen.  It  called  itself 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Churcli  in  that  State.  It  de- 
clared itself  to  be  the  legal  and  actual  successor  of  the 
Church  of  England  there  ;  that  therefore  all  glebes, 
lands,  and  property  belonging  to  its  predecessor  now 
belonged  to  it  by  law ;  that  it  would  be  at  once  its  right 
and  its  duty  to  modify  the  liturgy  and  customs  of  the 
old  Church  so  as  to  fit  the  changed  political  circum- 
stances ;  that  in  doing  so  it  must  not  be  thought  to 
destroy  its  identity  ;  that  in  order  to  hold  its  trusts  and 
discharge  its  duties  it  must  now  proceed  forthwith  to 
effect  a  complete  organization ;  that  the  prime  thing 
needed  for  the  complete  equipment  of  an  Episcopal 
Church  was  a  bishop.  The  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith 
was  elected  to  fill  that  office,  when,  and  as  soon  as,  he 
could  procure  consecration.     Dr.  Smith's  testimonials  of 

1  Smith :  Life,  vol.  ii.  p.  93. 

2  lb.  vol.  ii.  p.  93. 


222  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

fitness  for  this  office  were  signed  by  the  eighteen  clergy 
present,  and  afterward  by  the  few  others  in  the  State 
who  were  detained  away.^ 

Virginia,  in  the  process  of  organization,  followed 
much  the  same  lines.^  In  both  States  the  feeling  and 
action  were  the  outcome  of  their  previous  habits  of 
Church  life.  The}^  approached  the  task  upon  the  side 
which  first  presented  itself.  That  was  the  secular  side. 
Ecclesiastical  issues  of  great  importance  were  bound  up 
with  it,  but  these  were  not  at  first  so.  clearly  seen  as  in 
both  the  other  groups  of  colonies.  But  to  them  fell 
the  weighty  task  of  settlinof  the  relation  of 

Relation  of  °      "^  ^ 

Church  and  the  Church  to  the  civil  power  in  the  new 
Republic.  Before  it  was  finally  determined, 
the  Church  was  shorn  of  much  of  her  former  preroga- 
tives, and  lost  much  property  which  was  equitably  hers. 
But  here,  as  always,  the  children  bore  their  parents' 
faults.  To  disentangle  Church  and  State  in  the  colo- 
nies where  they  had  been  united  for  a  century  and  a 
half,  was  a  task  so  arduous  that  it  would  have  been  too 
much  to  expect  it  to  have  been  done  without  errors, 
and  even  injustices.  But,  upon  the  whob,  it  was 
effected  with  a  fair  amount  of  equity. 

1  Smith:  Life  of  Dr.  Wm.  Smitli,  vol.  ii.  p.  100. 

2  Hawlts:  Contributions,  vol.  Va.  p.  179,  et  seq. 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  PLAN.  223 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   NEW    ENGLAND    PLAN. 

In  New  England  the  controlling  motive  was  ecclesi- 
astical. The  Church  Idea  had  been  far  better  wrought 
out  there  than  else\\here.  Two  influences 
Churchman-  had  been  at  work  for  fifty  years,  to  elevate 
^^^^'  the    tone    of    Churchnianship.      The    "  New 

England  converts,"  led  by  President  Cutler  and  re- 
cruited constantly  by  men  of  a  like  way  of  thinking, 
had  all  come  to  the  Episcopal  Church  from  strenuous 
conviction.  They  had  studied  her  history.  They  knew 
her  claims.  They  had  forfeited  much  which  the}'  held 
dear  when  they  transferred  their  allegiance  to  her. 
They  had  been  called  upon  again  and  again  to  give  a 
reason  for  their  faith.  No  slight  reason  would  suffice. 
Their  challengers  were  men  who  knew  how  to  weigh 
proofs  and  to  test  assumptions.  They  lived  among  a 
people  who  dearly  loved  an  argument.  To  hold  their 
own  they  must  know  clearly  what  they  believed,  and 
why  they  believed  it.  This  had  compelled  them  to 
work  out  the  theory  of  the  Church,  and  to  free  it  from 
all  subordinate  considerations.  Naturally  they  became 
pronounced  Churchmen. 

In  this  position  they  were  sustained  by  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  the   Gospel  in 


224  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOrAL   CHURCH. 

Foreign  Parts,  by  which  society  most  of  them  were 
supported.  The  "Venerable  Society's"  position  in  this 
regard  had  been  emphatic  from  its  organization.  The 
New  England  clergy  were  agents  much  to  its  liking. 
In  the  other  colonies  Episcopacy  was  often  regarded 
as  just  a  part  of  the  existing  order  oi  things.  It 
was  accepted  without  much  thought  either  way.  It 
was  as  good  a  mode  of  Church  organization  as  an- 
other, in  some  points  better,  but,  still,  not  a  thing  of 
life  and  death  value.  Its  history  was  venerable  ;  its 
endowments  were  valuable  ;  its  manners  were  good  ;  its 
followers  were  worthy  men ;  it  was  a  present  fact ;  but 
its  ground  and  essential  reason  were  not  much  studied. 
Beside  that,  the  shocks  and  disturbances  of  revolu- 
tion had  brought  people  into  the  way  of  thinking  all 
things  capable  of  change.  What  institution  could  have 
been  imagined  more  unchangeable  and  established  by 
longer  prescription  than  monarchy  ?  But  monarchy 
had  been  abandoned  as  an  outworn  and  useless  piece 
of  lumber.     Why  not  Episcopacy  also  ? 

The  Churchmen  of   New  England  were  very  appre- 
hensive of  this  latter  feeling.     What  else,  they  asked, 
would   account  for   the    action  of  the    Bur- 

Their  dis- 
trust of  the      lington    Convocation,  which    entertained  the 

ofothTv"^^  proposition  of  an  Independent  Episcopal 
Churchmen,  diurch  ?  What  but  this  could  explain  the 
pestilent  plan  which  Dr.  White  had  just  wrought  out 
in  his  awful  pamphlet  ?i  Their  own  convictions  had 
not  been  disturbed  by  the  Revolution.  Their  sympa- 
thies had  not  gone  with  it.     They  were  Tories.     They 

1  Beardsley :  Seabury,  p.  97. 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  PLAN.  225 

accepted  its  results  as  a  providential  dispensation  which 
they  could  not  gainsay,  but  they  had  no  part  or  lot  in 
its  spirit  of  change.  They  had  never  had  any  endow- 
ments  to  seduce  them  from  the  pure,  spiritual  concep- 
tion of  the  Church,  or  to  distract  them  now  from  their 
clear  purpose  of  securing  the  primitive  Faith  and  Apos- 
tolic Order  for  which  they  had  already  suffered. 

Their  strength  was  mainly  in  Connecticut.  When 
the  war  was  over,  there  were  in  that  State  forty  Episco- 
pal congregations,  fourteen  clergy,  and  a  Church  popu- 
lation of  about  forty  thousand.^  Unlike  the  other  States, 
Connecticut  had  not  fallen  foul  of  the  Tories  when  vic- 
tory settled  on  the  American  side.2  They  were  allowed 
to  repair  their  broken  fortunes  unmolested,  in  v/hatever 
way  offered,  })ut  when  they  learned  what  their  fellows 
in  New  York  and  Massachusetts  were  suffering  they 
walked  in  fear  and  trembling. 

Word  was  quietly  passed  about  among  the  clergy  to 
attend  a  meeting  to  consider  the  state  of  affairs.  Ten 
First  Con-  ^^  *^^®  fourteen  met  at  Woodbury,  a  little 
necticut  straggling  village  among  the  hills  of  Litch- 
Convention.      n   tj  n         ,  mi     • 

tieid  County.  Their  meeting  was  kept  a  pro- 
found secret.^  They  were  very  doubtful  as  to  how  their 
plans  would  be  regarded  by  the  populace.  Ten  years 
before,  an  attempt  to  secure  the  Episcopate  would  have 
raised  a  howl ;  there  was  reason  to  believe  that  it  would 
be  still  more  strongly  resented  now  that  the  Presbyte- 

1  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabury,  p.  137. 

1  Beardsley:  History  of  Cliurch  in  Connecticut,  vol.  i.  p,  346 

2  lb.,  vol.  i.  p.  353. 

»  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabury,  p.  78. 

3  Beardsley:  History  of  Churcb  in  Connecticut,  vol.  i.  p.  346. 


226  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

rians  were  in  position  to  formulate  their  objections  in  the 
shape  of  law.  Nor  were  the  clergy  sure  of  their  own 
The  political  I'^Jii^en.  U'hese  were  not  taken  into  council, 
obstacles.  Those  of  them  who  were  loyalists  were  in 
sufficient  peril  already.  It  would  require  all  their  cir- 
cumspection to  come  out  of  it  unscathed.  To  exacerbate 
tlie  situation  by  a  revival  of  the  Episcopate  seemed  very 
madness.  But  the  clergy  were  both  courageous  and  clear- 
minded.  They  saw  distinctly  that  the  life  of  the  Church 
was  at  stake.  It  anything  effective  were  to  be  done  to 
secure  it,  it  must  be  done  at  once.  There  was  serious 
risk  in  what  they  proposed  to  do.  The  temper  of  the 
new  State  towards  Episcopacy  had  not  been  tested,  and, 
judging  by  the  past,  the  worst  might  be  looked  for. 
They  would  therefore  not  involve  the  laymen  in  the 
project  at  all ;  they  would  proceed  at  their  own  proper 
peril.  If  they  succeeded  in  building  the  Church,  well 
and  good ;  if  not,  they  would  fail  like  honest  men  and 
conscientious  Churchmen.  There  are  no  records  extant 
of  their  proceedings  at  this  conference  at  Woodbury. 
No  minutes  were  kept,  no  roll  of  the  members'  names 
lias  come  down.  In  truth,  it  was  hardly  a  convention  in 
any  sense.  Every  man  present  had  had  his  mind  made 
up,  long  before,  what  was  to  be  done.  There  was  only 
one  thing  to  do,  that  was  to  secure  a  bishop.  The  meet- 
ing was  only  to  determine  whom  they  should  select  to 
undertake  that  duty.  It  was  no  question  of  preferment, 
nor  were  there  many  available  men  to  choose  from. 
Whoever  he  might  be  must,  of  course,  be  a  man  whose 
life  and  learning  would  be  respectable ;  but  they  could 
all  meet  that  requirement.     The  difficulty  was  to  find  a 


SAMUEL   SEABURY 

First  I'.ishop  of  Connectu-iil 


THE   NEW   ENGLAND   PLAN.  227 

man  who  could  accept  it.  It  would  mean  for  him,  in 
all  probability,  personal  unpopularity  among  his  neigh- 
bors at  home,  a  costly  and  dangerous  voyage  over  the 
sea  for  consecration,  infinite  labor  to  meet  and  overcome 
the  prejudices  of  the  authorities  in  the  English  Church, 
and,  in  all  likelihood,  permanent  expatriation. 

Their  choice  fell  finally  upon  two  men,  either  of  whom 
would  be  suitable,  but  neither  of  whom  was  present. 
Choosing  the  T^^y  were  the  Rev.  Drs.  Jeremiah  Leamiug 
first  bishop.  r^^^f[  Samuel  Seabury.  They  were  both  in 
New  York,  but  belonged  in  Connecticut  by  birth  and 
service.  Dr.  Leaming  was  an  old  man.  He  had  been 
rector  of  the  church  at  Norwalk,  but  had  been  driven 
away,  with  loss  of  goods  and  friends.  When  he  was  in- 
formed of  the  action  of  his  Connecticut  brethren,  he  at 
once  declined  the  office.  He  was  too  infirm  to  bear  the 
voyage,  and,  at  his  age,  he  could  not  face  the  probability 
of  making  for  himself  a  new  home  outside  of  the  State. 
Dr.  Seabury  accepted.  He  was  a  Connecticut  man  by 
birth,  and  was  now  fifty -four  j^ears  of  age,  in  the  vigor 
of  his  life.  He  was  the  son  ol  one  of  the  "New  Eng- 
land converts  "  from  Puritanism,  and,  like  all  that  stock, 
Dr.Seabury's  ^  High  Churchman.  He  had  studied  medi- 
career.  ^ine  at  Edinburgh,  been  ordained  in  England, 

had  served  as  a  missionary  in  Long  Island  and  New 
Jersey.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  he  was  rector  of 
the  parish  at  Westchester,  N.  Y.  He  had  been  a  pro- 
nounced and  active  Tory  from  the  beginning.  With 
his  friends  Inglis  and  Chandler,  he  had  conducted  a  lit- 
erary bureau  advocating  the  British  side  of  the  contest. 
He  wtis  generally  believed  to  have  written  the  biting 


228  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

letters  of  Wilkins,  signed  by  "A  Westchester  Farmer." 
He  had  published  some  very  "  Free  Thoughts  on  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia."  ^  He  had 
been  seized  b}"  the  Continental  authorities  and  impris- 
oned, had  escaped  and  taken  refuge  in  the  British  lines 
on  Long  Island.  While  there  he  had  used  his  topo- 
graphical knowledge  of  the  surrounding  country  to 
make  maps  for  the  military  operations  of  his  protectors ; 
had  been  mustered  into  the  British  regular  service  as 
chaplain  of  an  infantry  regiment ;  and  was  now,  after  his 
retirement,  receiving  English  half-pay.  His  personal 
character  and  devotion  in  his  priestly  office  were  well 
known  to  those  who  chose  him  bishop,  and  were,  in  point 
of  fact,  beyond  all  question.  Both  ecclesiastically  and 
politically  he  w^as  in  every  way  grateful  to  them.  He 
represented  their  spirit  and  their  situation  more  fairly 
than  any  other  man  who  could  have  been  chosen. 

At  the  time  they  selected  him  they  outlined  the  plan 
of  procedure  he  was  to  follow."'^     He  was  to  go  to  Eng- 

„v  n  ^-  land  and  lay  before  the  bishops  his  credentials. 
The  Lonnecti-  -^  -^  _  _ 

cut  plan.  submitting  to  them  the  facts  which,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  Connecticut  people,  made  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  American  bishop  an  immediate  and  imperative 
necessity.  He  was  to  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  secure 
from  them  his  consecration.  In  case  he  should  fail  of 
this,  he  was  to  go  to  Scotland  and  endeavor  to  secure 
consecration  at  the  hands  of  the  Nonjuring  Episcopal 
College  there.  If  he  should  succeed  in  either  place  he 
was  to  return  to  Connecticut,  —  if  he  would  be  allowed 

1  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabury,  p.  30. 
5  lb.,  p.  104 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  PLAN.  229 

to  do  SO.  Upon  this  point  there  was  much  doubt.  The 
status  of  the  loyalists  had  not  yet  been  determined. 
The  treaty  was  still  pending.  Its  terms  might  ensure 
restitution  for  their  losses  and  security  for  the  future, 
or  it  might  do  the  opposite.  That  remained  to  be  seen. 
Then  there  was  no  certainty  that  all  the  States  would 
take  the  same  action  upon  this  subject.  It  might  prove 
to  be  possible  for  a  Tory  bishop  to  live  in  one  section, 
and  be  outlawed  in  another.  In  view  of  these  contin- 
gencies he  was,  if  consecrated,  to  return  to  Connecticut 
if  that  course  should  be  open  ;  if  that  should  be  closed, 
then  to  fix  his  seat  in  some  other  State.  If  all  should 
be  barred  against  him,  then  he  was  to  make  his  habita- 
tion across  the  border  in  Nova  Scotia.  There  he  could 
be  reached  by  candidates  for  ordination  without  the  bur- 
den of  crossing  the  sea,  and  from  there  he  could  look 
out  and  superintend  the  Church's  growth  in  New 
England,  while  he  and  it  would  wait  for  better  times. 
The  scheme  had  the  indorsement  of  Sir  Guy  Carleton, 
and  Dr.  Seabury  sailed  away  to  England  in  the  re- 
turning flag-ship  of  Admiral  Digby  ^  to  carry  it  into 
effect. 

Upon  his  arrival  lie  found  the  prospect  of  success  very 
The  sentiment  sn^a^H  indeed.  The  bishops,  however  they 
in  England,  j^igj^^.  sympathize  with  the  colonial  Church, 
were  chagrined  at  the  defeat  of  the  British  power. 
Lowth,  the  great  Bishop  of  London,  had  flatly  refused 
to  lay  his  hands  upon  any  man  who  was  going  back  to 
America  to  preach,^  even  though  he  had  been  assured 

1  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabury,  pp.  95,  9G. 

2  McMaster:  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  230. 


230  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

that  Parliament  would  not  demur  at  his  omitting  the 
oaths. ^  To  the  current  conception  of  the  nature  of  the 
Episcopal  office,  it  seemed  even  more  absurd  to  give  it 
to  the  petty  States  than  it  would  have  been  to  give  it  to 
the  colonies,  where  it  could  at  least  have  had  the  moral 
support  of  the  English  kingdom.  The  bishops  were 
stolid,  impracticable,  hopeless.  While  they  treated 
Seabury  with  consideration,  and  a  few  of  them  mani- 
fested a  curious  interest  in  American  affairs,  they  were 
incapable  of  appreciating,  as  the  Americans  did,  the  kind 
of  an  Episcopate  which  was  desired.  They  were  con- 
cerned about  the  "dignity"  of  the  office.  There  was 
no  suitable  provision  for  the  proper  support  ^  of  Dr.  Sea- 
bury,  so  that  he  might  live  in  a  style  which  a  bishop 
ought  to  maintain.  The  office  would  fall  into  contempt.^ 
Moreover,  their  hands  were  tied.  The  law  required 
that  a  bishop,  at  his  consecration,  must  swear  allegiance 
to  the  Crown.  They  shook  their  heads  when  it  was 
suggested  that  the  king  in  council  might  waive  that 
requirement.     That  seemed  sufficient  to  a  few,  but  to 

most  it  ap])eared  that  an  Act  of  Parliament 
English  ^  ^ 

bishops'  only  could  give  exemption.    Beside  that,  they 

feared  that  if  they  should  overcome  all  diffi- 
culties and  consecrate  an  American  bishop,  it  would  be 
construed  as  an  unfriendly  act  by  the  new  States,  who 

1  Abbey:  English  Church  and  its  Bishojis,  vol.  ii.  p.  186. 

2  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabury,  p.  111. 

3  This  idea  was  slow  to  disappear.  After  the  middle  of  the  present 
century,  when  Bishop  Wilberforce  had  fixed,  by  his  example,  the  modern 
standard,  an  old  don  complained  that  — "  I  remember  when  a  bishop  never 
came  into  Oxford  without  a  coacli  and  six.  But  what  does  Sam  do  ? 
Just  mounts  his  horse,  without  even  agioom  behind  him,  and  rides  away 
to  a  visitation  before  breakfast!  " 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  PLAN.  231 

liad  now  taken  their  place  in  the  family  of  nations 
England  had  had  trouble  enough  with  America  ;  why 
should  they  provoke  her  farther?  Her  opinion  had 
always  been  pronounced  against  tliis  action,  and  the 
bishops  could  not  see  that  the  ground  of  the  opposition 
had  dropped  out  when  the  Church  became  innocuous  on 
its  political  side. 

In  addition  to  all  this,  they  were  by  no  means  satis- 
fied that  Connecticut  Avould  receive  Bishop  Seabury  if 
he  should  be  consecrated.  If  this  should  turn  out  to  be 
the  case,  they  would  have  on  their  hands  a  churchless 
bishop,  who  would  be  an  awkward  personage  to  dispose 
of.  This  last  difficulty  Avas  met  by  showing  the  declara- 
tion of  all  the  leading  members  of  the  Connecticut 
Legislature,  to  the  effect  that  there  would  be  no  political 
objection  whatever  to  receiving  the  new  bishop,  but 
that,  on  the  contrary,  there  were  so  man}-  Episcopalians 
in  the  State  that  it  would  be  for  the  public  good  to  give 
them  a  head. 

After  interminable  delay,  an  Act  of  Parliament  was 
introduced  to  allow  a  dispensation  from  the  oaths,  in 
the  case  of  bishops  consecrated  for  foreign  countries. 
The  bishops  gave  a  tardy  assent,  but  the  preliminary 
requirements  were  endless.  When  a  whole  year  had 
passed,  Dr.  Seabury  was  at  the  end  of  his  patience  and 
of  his  money.  He  was  a  poor  man.  He  had  been  living 
for  a  year  in  London  at  his  own  expense,  and  there 
seemed  to  be  no  more  prospect  than  when  he  had  first 
come.  He  therefore  turned  his  back  upon  England 
and  her  impotent,  State-bound  Church,  and  went  to 
Scotland. 


232  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

The  influence  upon  the  American  Church  of  Sea^ 
bury's  Scotch  connection  has  been  so  far-reaching  that 
The  Scotch  it  is  necessary  here  to  suspend  the  story  long 
En'^iand  enough  to  tracB  its  origin.  In  Scotland  there 
churches.  were  two  Episcopal  Churches,  neither  of 
which  recognized  the  other.^  At  the  Revolution  of 
1688,  when  the  Stuarts  were  deported,  and  William 
of  Orange  came  to  the  throne,  the  Episcopalians  and 
Presbyterians  in  Scotland  were  not  unequally  divided.^ 
William  offered  the  support  of  the  government  to  the 
Episcopalians,  but  they  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
him.  They  declared  their  unalterable  loyalty  to  the 
Stuart  line.  When  the  bishops  to  a  man,  and  most  of 
the  clergy  and  people,  turned  their  backs  upon  his  offer, 
he  gave  his  patronage  to  the  Presbyterians.  Presby- 
tery was  established,  and  Episcopacy  was  proscribed. 
The"Non-  The  bishops  and  clergy  who  refused  to  take 
jurors."  William's  oath  —  and  hence  were  called  non- 

jurors  —  were  deprived  and  their  places  filled  by  Pres- 
byterians. Those  of  the  clergy  who  did  take  the  oath 
were  protected,  but  placed  under  the  sharp  oversight  of 
the  Presbyterian  General  Assembly.  Then  succeeded  a 
dreadful  century  for  Scotch  Episcopalians.  Even  though 
it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  had  brought  the  evils  on 
themselves  by  their  factious  attachment  to  the  wretched 
Stuarts,  still,  their  stubborn  fixity  of  purpose  in  follow- 
ing their  twisted  consciences  must  excite  admiration. 
Their  marked  feature  was  their  Jacobitism.  Attach- 
ment to  their  royal  line  was  with  them  a  religious  cult. 

1  Abbey:  Englisli  Cliurcli  and  Bisliops,  vol.  ii.  pp.  17(j-187. 

2  Grub:  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Scotland,  vol.  iii.  p.  310. 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  PLAN.  233 

James  Stuart  was  the  "  anointed  of  the  Lord."  After 
him  they  turned  to  poor  "•  Prince  Chairlie,"  and  took 
him  to  their  hearts.  AVhen  Charles  Edward,  the 
debauched  "  Chevalier,"  died,  in  1788,  their  last  idol 
was  broken,  but  they  continued  even  then  to  offer  a 
sentimental  devotion  before  an  em])ty  throne.  In  the 
risings  of  1715  and  1745,  the  Episcopalians  were  the 
head  and  front.  After  the  last,  the  English  government 
proceeded  deliberately  to  extirpate  them  as  a  brood  of 
inveterate  treason-hatchers.  After  Culloden,  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland,  by  the  King's  command,  burned  every 
chapel  in  his  path.  Scotch  orders  were  declared  null 
and  void.i  It  was  made  a  penal  offence  for  more  than 
five  nonjurors  to  assemble  for  worship.  They  were 
driven  into  holes  and  corners.  The  well-disposed  clergy 
and  men  in  English  orders  were  introduced  as  far 
as  possible.  These  latter  were  regarded  by  the  non- 
jurors as  intruders,  and  they  in  turn  called  the  others 
traitors.  The  Scotch  Episcopalians  were  detested 
equally  by  Scotch  Presbyterians  and  English  Church- 
men. It  was  an  open  question  whether  the  Churches 
in  the  two  kingdoms  were  even  in  communion.^ 
Whether  they  were  or  not,  they  certainly  were  not 
in  sympathy.  The  Scotch  were  all  Jacobites  and  all 
High  Churchmen,  and  in  these  respects  had  few  in 
England  like  them.  Two  Liturgies  had  been  in  use  in 
Scotland  for  a  century  and  a  half.  In  Edinburgh  and 
the  south  the  English  was  adopted  ;    but  at  Aberdeen 

1  Tliis  was  the  ground  of  the  constant  complaint  made  hy  the  Churcli- 
men  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  at  that  date,  that  the  clergy  who  came 
over  to  them  were  "  Scotchmen." 

2  Grub:  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Scotland,  vol.  iii.  p.  370. 


234  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL    CHURCH. 

and  tlie  north  the  Liturgy  in  use  was  substantially  tlie 
first  Prayer-Book  of  Edward  VI.  In  its  sacramental 
teaching  it  was  far  more  emphatic  than  the  English 
book.  After  a  long  and  earnest  controversy,  this  Lit- 
urgy, in  a  revised  form,  was  adopted  for  general  use  in 
Scotland  in  1764.  By  that  time  the  repressive  laws 
had  been  allowed  quietly  to  become  relaxed  so  that  the 
nonjuring  remnant,  which  had  its  existence  mainly 
about  Aberdeen  and  the  Northern  Highlands,  could 
meet  without  molestation. 

It  was  to  the  bishops  of  this  obscure  and  broken 
body  that  Dr.  Seabury  turned  when  he  despaired  of 
English  consecration.  He  found  in  them  men  of  his 
own  spiritual  kin.  They  welcomed  him  as  a  man  after 
their  own  heart.  Bishop  John  Skinner  possessed  a  sort 
of  private  chapel,  made  by  throwing  together  the  upper 
rooms  of  his  modest  house  in  Aberdeen.  In  that 
chapel  Dr.  Seabury  was  consecrated  bishop,  November 
14, 1784.  His  consecrators  were  Robert  Kilgour,  Arthur 
Petrie,  and  John  Skinner.  They  and  their  Church  had 
a  strange  similarity  to  him  and  his.  Both  Churches 
had,  through  their  political  situation,  been  driven  to 
emphasize  strongly  the  divine  side  of  Episcopacy.  They 
both  had  their  homes  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile  Presbyte- 
rian community.  They  had  each  been  trained  to  recog- 
nize a  king  who  was  hateful  to  their  fellow-citizens. 
The  people  in  l)oth  cases  had  learned  to  live  their 
religious  lives  apart  from  the  people  among  whom  they 
dwelt.  They  were  not  readily  touched  by  the  spirit 
of  their  time  and  place.  Their  spirit  was,  at  its  best, 
serene,  assured,  self-contained.     But  it   had,  and  has, 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  PLAN.  235 

its  besetting  sins.  The  Churchmen  of  the  nonjiiiing, 
Seabuiy  type  have  been  often  found  to  be  impractica- 
ble, narrow,  prejudiced,  governed  in  their  actions  by 
inherited  sentiments  rather  than  by  present  facts.  But 
they  brought  to  the  building  of  the  American  Cliurch 
its  clearly  defined  architecture.  This  principle  was 
guaranteed,  as  far  as  was  possible  to  do,  by  the  Concor- 
dat agreed  to  by  Seabury  and  the  Scotch  Episcopal 
College.^  This  secured  the  principle  of  national  auton- 
omy by  the  pledge  that  the  American  Church  would 
hold  no  fellowship  with  the  intruding  Episcopal  organi- 
zation in  Scotlantl.  It  insured  Catholic  doctrine  by  the 
pledge  that  Seabury  would  use  his  endeavor  to  have 
the  Scotch  Communion  Office  given  place  in  the  Ameri- 
can Liturgy,  — a  pledge  which  he  was  able  to  redeem. 

Thus,  after  the  labors  of  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  years,  there  was,  when  Bishop  Seabury  returned, 
an  Episcopal  Church  in  America. 

He  became  rector  of  the  parish  at  New  London.  He 
called  a  convocation  of  the  Connecticut  clergy,  dis- 
played his  certificates  of  consecration,  received  their 
pledge  of  canonical  obedience,  avowed  the  principles 
which  would  control  his  work,  and  began  the  Church's 
share  in  the  task  of  making  and  keeping  a  new  nation 
Christian. 

1  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabury,  p.  150. 


236  THE   PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    FEDERAL    IDEA. 

Philadelphia  was  the  American  College  of  States- 
manship. As  the  meeting-place  of  the  Continental 
Colonial  Congress,  and,  for  the  most  part,  the  seat  of 

statesman"  government,  it  brought  together  that  re- 
ship-  markable  group  of  men  who  may  truthfully 
be  called  the  builders  of  the  nation.  It  was  the  meet- 
ing-place of  Franklin,  Washington,  Jay,  Madison,  Jef- 
ferson, Hamilton,  Randolph,  and  Morris.  These  men 
were  at  once  students  and  teachers.  They  differed 
widely  among  themselves  as  to  the  exact  appearance 
which  the  new  nation  would  present  when  established, 
but  upon  one  thing  they  all  agreed, — America  was  a 
nation.  She  had  and  must  have  an  independent  life  of 
her  own.  Beside  that,  they  saw  clearly  that  the  vari- 
ous sections  of  the  country  were  so  intimately  bound 
together  that  their  interests  must  be  in  common.  The 
long-drawn  debates  through  which  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution was  fashioned,  and  the  popular  tumults  amidst 
which  it  got  itself  adopted,  all  ended  by  fixing  upon  the 
public  mind  the  firm  conviction  which  the  leading  Fed- 
eralists had  held  from  the  beginning,  that  the  nation  is 
one,  and  must  be  l)ound  together  in  a  common  govern- 
ment. 

The  Rev.  William  White,  rector  of  Christ  Church, 


WILLIAM  WHITE 

First  Rishop  of  Pennsylvania 


THE   FEDERAL   IDEA.  237 

Philadelphia,  had  spent  his  whole  life  in  close  acquaint- 
ance with  these  statesmen.  He  approached  the  problem 
^ev.  Dr.  of  the  American  Church  in  the  same  spirit 
White.  ii^Q^^  they  did  the  American  State.     None  of 

his  contemporaries  surpassed  and  few  equalled  him  in 
sagacity.  When  the  war  ended  he  was  thirty-five  years 
old.  He  was  well  born,  well  bred,  and  well  educated,^ 
both  in  this  country  and  abroad.  In  England  he  was  a 
friend  of  Dr.  Johnson  ;  had  him  for  his  guest  at  his 
inn ;  chatted  with  him  while  he  watched  him  at  work 
on  his  lexicon  ;  supped  with  him  at  Kensington ;  and 
wrote  him  when  he  came  back  to  Philadelphia.^  He 
was  on  familiar  terms  with  Goldsmith,  visited  him, 
praised  his  work,  and  condoled  with  him  that  so  clever 
a  man  should  have  to  harness  his  sfenius  to  a  cart  to 
earn  his  daily  bread.^  He  was  ordained  in  England ; 
became  Assistant,  and  soon  after  Rector  of  Clirist 
Church,  Philadelphia  i  was  chosen  Chaplain  of  Con- 
gress ;  and,  when  the  war  ended,  was  next  after  Frank- 
lin, the  leading  citizen  of  the  State.  While  Dr.  Smith, 
of  Maryland,  was  engrossed  with  the  small  economies  of 
a  struggling  college,  and  Dr.  Seabury  was  observing  the 
petty  routine  of  an  infantry  barracks.  Dr.  White  was 
unconsciously  learning  the  statecraft  which  guided  the 
founders  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 

He  took    the    first   step   by  calling   together  a  few 
friends  at  his  own  house  *  to  talk  over  the   situation. 

1  White:  Memoirs,  Introduction  of  Dr.  DaCosta,  p.  liii 

1  Norton :  Life  of  Bishop  White,  p.  10. 

^  Wilson:  Life  of  Bisliop  Wliite. 

^  Norton:  Life  of  Bishop  Wliite,  p.  21, 

3  lb.,  p.  21. 

*  White:  Memoirs,  p.  93. 


238  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

No  plan  of  procedure  was  proposed,  but  tlie  men  pres- 
ent were  found  to  be  of  the  same  mind  with  him. 

In  ^lay  of  1784,  there  was  a  meeting  in  New  Bruns- 
wick, N.  J.,  of  the  managers  of  the  "  Society  for  the 
Relief  of  the  Widows  and  Orphans  of  Clergy- 

The  confer-  .  •  i      i      i  •       i 

enceatNew  men.  1  his  society  had  been  organized 
runswic  .  ^^yg^^ty  years  before,  and  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  had  held  considerable  funds.  Its  board  was 
made  up  of  members  from  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
and  Pennsylvania,  acting  conjointly.  They  had  had  no 
meeting  for  more  than  seven  3^ears.  Now  they  came 
together  to  re-organize.  When  their  business  was 
transacted,  they  fell  to  discussing  the  general  condi- 
tion of  the  Church.  Some  prominent  laymen  who 
chanced  to  be  at  the  same  place  were  called  in  to 
assist.  During  the  discussion  they  learned /or  ^7ie^'r«^ 
time  2  of  the  action  which  Connecticut  liad  taken.  So 
secretly  had  the  New  England  people  carried  forward 
their  project  that  the  Churchmen  of  the  Middle  colonies 
were  in  ignorance  of  it,  though  Dr.  Seabury,  the  bishop- 
elect,  had  already  been  in  England  for  nearly  a  year ! 
In  point  of  fact,  the  people  of  the  two  sections  dis- 
trusted each  other  equall}^  In  the  East  they  feared  the 
"  latitudinarianism "  of  the  South ;  in  the  South  they 
dreaded  the  ''  ecclesiasticism  "  of  the  East.  Can  this 
difference  be  a  permanent  affair  of  latitude  ? 

The  result  of  the  informal  discussion  at  Brunswick 
was  to  issue  a  call  for  a  conference  of  Churchmen  from 
all  the  States,  to  be  held  at  New  York,  in  October  of 
the  same  year.     Delegations  came  to  this  meeting  from 

1  White:  Memoirs,  p.  84. 


THE   FEDERAL   IDEA.  239 

Pennsylvania,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Mary- 
land, Viro'inia,  and  Connecticut.  The  Connecticut  del- 
eo'ation  stated  at  the  outset,  however,  that  they  were 
not  at  liberty  to  take  any  formal  part  in  the  delib- 
erations while  they  were  awaiting  the  result  of  Dr. 
Seabury's  journey  to  England.  The  others  present 
proceeded  to  formulate  some  general  and  fundamental 
principles  of  organization  to  be  recommended  for  adop- 
Fundamentai  ^ion  by  the  churches  in  the  several  States.^ 
principles.  Those  principles  contemplated:  (a)  A  Fed- 
eral, Constitutional  Church ;  Q>)  the  several  States  to 
be  its  units ;  (c)  its  governing  body  to  include  both 
clergy  and  laymen  ;  ((7)  the  maintenance  of  continuity 
with  the  Church  of  England,  making  such  changes  in 
worship  and  discipline   only   as   the   changed  political 


1  The  leading  mind  in  formulating  these  principles  was  Dr.  White. 
As  finally  adopted  by  the  united  Church,  they  were  substantially  the 
same  that  he  submitted  to  the  first  little  group  of  clergy  at  his  own 
house  in  Philadelphia.  The  form  in  which  they  were  submitted  to  the 
States  for  action  was  as  follows:  — 

First,  That  there  be  a  General  Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America. 

Second,  That  the  Episcopal  Church  in  each  State  send  Deputies  to  the 
Convention,  consisting  of  Clergy  and  Laity. 

Tldrd,  That  associated  congregations,  in  two  or  more  States,  may  .send 
Deputies  jointly. 

Fourth:  That  the  said  Church  shall  maintain  the  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel  as  now  held  by  the  Church  of  Enr/hmd,  and  shall  adhere  to  the 
Liturgy  of  the  said  Church,  as  far  as  shall  be  consistent  with  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  and  the  Constitution  of  the  respective  States. 

Fifth,  That  in  every  State  where  there  shall  be  a  Bishop  duly  consfv 
crated  and  settled,  he  shall  be  considered  as  a  member  of  the  Convention 
ex  officio. 

Sij-th,  That  the  Clergy  and  Laity  assembled  in  Convention,  shall 
deliberate  in  one  body,  but  shall  vote  separately,  and  the  concurrence  of 
both  shall  be  necessary  to  give  validity  to  every  measure. 

Seventh,  That  no  powers  be  delegated  to  a  general  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernment, except  such  as  cannot  conveniently  be  exercised  by  the  Clergy 
and  Laity  in  their  respective  congregations. 


240  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

situation  might  render  necessary  ;  {e')  to  confer  no 
powers  upon  the  general  body  save  such  as  coukl  not 
conveniently  be  exercised  by  the  several  local  churches. 
The  few  clergy  in  Massachusetts  and  to  the  eastward 
were  not  present,  but  held  a  conference  of  their  own,  at 
which  they  adopted  substantially  the  same  fundamental 
principles. 

The  conference  had  no  power  to  do  more  than  recom- 
mend to  the  churches  such  principles  or  actions  as 
seemed  to  its  members  desirable.  But  there  was  no 
prince  or  parliament  to  summon  a  council,  so  this  con- 
ference ventured  to  do  so.  They  issued  a  call  sum- 
Constitutional  nioning  the  churches  in  the  several  States  to 
Convention,  ycnd  delegates  to  a  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion to  be  held  at  Philadelphia  on  St.  Michael's  Day, 
September,  1785.  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Penn- 
svlvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  South 
Carolina  responded  with  representatives.  Connecticut 
declined  ;  Massachusetts  sent  a  letter.  When  the  Con- 
vention met,  two  conflicting  plans  of  procedure  were 
confronted.  The  ecclesiastical  idea  of  New  England 
and  the  federal  idea  of  the  Middle  colonies  were  now 
face  to  face.^ 

The  former  insisted  that  nothing  could  be  done  un- 
less they  began  the  business  at  the  right  end.  The 
Two  possible  ^^^^  thing  necessary  is  to  secure  bishops; 
policies.  nothing  binding  can  be  enacted  by  the  Church 
until  the  Church  is  present ;  the  Church  is  not  present 
and  cannot  be  until  its  chief  officers  are  on  the 
ground  ;  anything  which  such  conventions  as  tJiis  may 

1  White:  Memoirs,  p.  109. 


THE   FEDERAL   IDEA.  241 

do  will  be  but  as  the  arrangements  which  children 
might  make  in  a  household  while  the  fatlier  is  abroad ; 
when  he  comes  he  may  set  them  all  aside ;  the  bishop  is 
the  source  of  authority ;  in  his  absence  there  is  no 
authority. 1 

The  other  side  urged  in  reply,  that  if  the  father  has 
his  rights  and  powers  the  children  also  have  theirs  ;  in 
this  case  the  children  are  quite  grown  up  and  capable  ; 
their  action,  within  its  proper  sphere,  is  legitimate  and 
will  be  valid.  In  addition,  the  practical  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  the  other  scheme  were  insurmountable. 
Who  could  determine  what  number  of  clergy  or  par- 
ishes should  have  the  right  to  choose  a  bishop?  Shall 
it  be  the  clergy  of  a  State?  But  by  what  authority 
is  a  political  territory  made  a  boundary  for  the  Church's 
action?  What  is  to  hinder  any  group  of  half  a  dozen 
clergy  anywhere  to  combine  and  choose  a  bishop  ?  The 
outcome  would  be  confusion  worse  confounded.  Half  a 
dozen  "  bishoprics  "  might  spring  up  in  the  same  State. 
And  even  if  they  should  be  confined  to  a  single  one 
for  each  State,  what  assurance  could  be  given  that  they 
would  come  into  federation  ?  Unless  some  constitution 
and  law  could  be  agreed  upon  in  advance,  only  anarchy 
could  be  looked  for. 

Guided  by  this  view,  the  Convention  proceeded  to  its 
momentous  task  without  New  England.  The  constitu- 
tion of  the  Episcopal  Church  they  then  elaborated  is  a 
document  worthy  of  profound  attention.  If  the  Pres- 
byterians may  claim  to  liave  produced  the  spirit  and 

1  White:  Memoirs,  p.  112. 

1  Beardsloy :  Life  of  Bishop  Seabury.  p.  23i. 


242  THE   FROTESTANT   EriSCOPAL   CHURCH. 

form  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,^  Churchmen 
may  claim  with  a  better  right  to  have  laid  down  the 
lines  of  the  National  Constitution.  The  truth  is  that  in 
both  cases,  a  striking  coincidence  is  all.  The 
Church  Con-  constitution  of  the  Clmrch  in  point  of  time 
stitutions.  ^3j.g(3eded  that  of  the  nation.  But  they  were 
the  handiwork  of  the  same  men,  and  the  result  of  the 
same  set  of  circumstances.  Dr.  Wliite  and  Dr.  Smith 
had  been  fellow-students  in  statecraft  with  those 
mighty  men  who  built  and  launched  the  ship  of  State. 
Their  opportunity  to  put  their  principles  in  form  came 
when  they  applied  them  to  the  Church's  constitution.^ 
In  its  salient  features  it  anticipated  that  other  one 
which  was  given  to  the  American  people  five  years 
later.  It  contemplated :  (a)  a  national  organization  ; 
(^6)  the  States  to  be  its  component  units  ;  (c)  its  gov- 
erning body  to  be  composed  of  two  orders,  clergy  and 
laity ;  ^  (d)  each  State  to  retain  in  its  own  hand  a  sov- 
ereign authority,  and  to  conduct  its  own  affairs.  On 
its  political  side  these  v/ere  its  cardinal  features.  In 
addition  it  provided  for  things  ecclesiastical  and  doc- 
trinal. There  was  to  be  :  *  («)  a  Triennial  Convention; 
(5)  bishops  when  obtained  were  to  be  ex-officio  members 
of  the  convention ;  (c)  persons  were  to  be  admitted 
to    Orders    upon   subscription   generally    to   the    Holy 

1  "Tlie  Mecklenburg  Declaration,"   Craigliead:    Scotch    and    Irish 

Seeds,  p.  327. 

1  Briggs:  American  Presbyterianism.  p.  349. 

2  It  was  draughted  by  Dr.  White.     White:  Memoirs,  p.  93. 

3  Bishop  Seabury's  contention  that  the  bisbops  should  constitute  a 
still  third  house  disarranged  the  scheme  as  it  lay  in  Bishop  White's 
mind.  The  balance  was  restored  again  by  merging  into  one  house  the 
first  two  proposed. 

*  Journal  of  Convention  of  1785. 


THE   FEDERAL   IDEA.  243 

Scriptures,  and  a  pledge  of  canonical  obedience  to  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities  ;  (<f)  the  Englisli  Prayer-Book 
was  to  be  the  basis  of  the  Liturgy,  but  to  be  modified 
so  as  to  bring  it  into  agreement  with  the  new  political 
arrangements. 

The  provision  in  its  fundamental  law  for  the  admis- 
sion of  the  laity  into  the   Church's   governing  body  as 

an  independent  estate  deserves  particular  re- 
Laymen  in 
Church  mark.    It  proposed  an  arrangement  which  had 

counci  s.  j^^^  been  in  operation  for  fifteen  centuries,  — 
probably  for  sixteen.  It  was  a  return  to  the  practice  of 
the  most  primitive  period.  Those  who  were  under  the 
domination  of  the  ecclesiastical  ideas  which  had  been 
current  at  least  since  Constantine's  time,  like  Bishop 
Seabury  and  his  fellow-prelates  in  England,  stumbled 
at  it.  It  was  ti'ue  that  kings  and  princes  had  for  cent- 
uries had  a  potential  voice  in  causes  ecclesiastic,  but 
this  had  not  been  in  their  capacity  as  laymen,  but  as 
"ministers  ordained  of  God."  The  plan  proposed  was 
radicallj-  different,  and  it  had  no  contemporary  illustra- 
tion. The  churches  then  in  existence  which  were  or- 
ganized after  the  Independent  fashion  were  based  upon 
the  theory  which  they  still  maintain,  —  that  there  is  no 
genuine  distinction  between  priests  and  laymen.  To 
their  view  they  are  both  alike,  and  equally,  "  kings  and 
priests  unto  God."  In  the  Presbyterian  scheme  the 
elders,  who  at  first  glance  might  be  taken  for  laymen, 
were  not  so,  but  were  ordahied  men.  For  the  scheme 
proposed  by  the  Church,  which  has  as  an  organizing  prin- 
ciple the  doctrine  of  the  Ministry,  there  was  no  example 
extant,  and  it  had  no  imitators  for  many  a  year.     It  is 


244  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOrAL   CHURCH. 

the  key  to  a  proper  understanding  of  the  Church's  legis= 
lation  since  its  adoption.  Its  radical  defect,  in  the  form 
first  proposed,  was  that  it  provided  no  proper  place  for 
the  intrinsic  differences  of  power  and  right  among  the 
orders  of  the  Ministry.  It  shut  the  Episcopate  out  from 
its  proper  place.  Bishop  Seabury  became  the  champion 
of  his  order.  Fortunately,  in  the  issue  his  candid,  though 
determined  spirit,  together  with  Dr.  White's  sagacity 
and  incomparable  diplomacy,  effected  that  coalescence 
of  the  two  views  which  is  the  Church's  present  posses- 
sion. But  before  the  consummation  was  reached  much 
was  to  be  done. 

The  Convention  proceeded  to  the  second  item  of  its 
agenda. 

The  English  Prayer-Book  had  been  in  use  ever  since 

the  planting  of  the  colonies.     The  somewhat  supers ti- 

„  .  .  ,.  tious  reverence  for  it,  however,  which,  half  a 
Revising  the 

Prayer-Book.  century  later,  came  to  regard  it  as  incapable 
of  being  changed,  did  not  then  generally  prevail.  Some 
changes  in  it  were  imperative.  It  was  English,  and  the 
Church  was  American.  It  must  either  be  made  catho- 
lic, so  as  to  be  of  universal  fitness,  or  the  political  por- 
tions of  it  must  be  made  American  also.  The  Convention 
approached  the  revision  of  it  with  a  light-heartedness 
somewhat  startling  to  those  who  are  familiar  with  the 
arduous  labors  of  later  years  in  the  same  line.  The 
first  purpose  entertained  was  to  change  only  its  political 
portions,  but,  the  task  being  once  entered  upon,  the  op- 
portunity to  make  other  desired  alterations  seemed  too 
good  to  be  thrown  away.  A  committee  of  one  clergy- 
man and  one  layman  from  each  State  represented  was 


THE   FEDERAL   IDEA.  245 

appointed  to  submit  to  the  Convention  a  schedule  of 
changes  deemed  desirable.^  After  three  days'  work  of 
the  committee,  they  reported  the  revised  book.  The 
Convention  spent  four  days  in  considering  the  proposed 
changes,  by  which  time  they  had  taken  action  upon  all 
that  related  to  political  things.  There  they  rested,  and 
referred  the  other  propositions  back  to  the  committee,  to 
be  acted  upon  by  them  after  adjournment.  There  was 
a  lack  of  clearness  in  the  instructions,  which  left  the 
committee  in  doubt  as  to  whether  they  were  to  com- 
plete the  revision  and  publish  the  book,  or  whether  they 
were  to  report  their  work  to  the  next  Convention  for 
approval.  They  acted  upon  the  former  opinion,  com- 
pleted their  task,  and  published  that  edition  of  the 
The  "Pro-  Common  Prayer  known  as  the  "Proposed 
posed  Book."  Book."  The  work  was  done  chiefly  by  Dr. 
Smith  of  Maryland  and  Dr.  White  of  Pennsylvania, 
having  before  them  the  opinions  which  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  committee  had  expressed  generally  before 
they  departed  to  their  far-away  homes. 

The  changes  from  the  English  Prayer-Book  may  be 
grouped  conveniently  into  five  categories.  The  exam- 
ples, by  no  means  exhaustive,  here  set  forth  under 
each,  will  give  a  conception  of  the  "  Proposed  Book's  " 
peculiarities. 

(1)  Political:  —  Prayers  for  the  king's  majesty,  for 
the  princes,  royal  family,  and  for  the  High  Court  of 
Parliament,  were  stricken  out,  and  in  their  stead  were 
placed  the  prayers  for  the  President  and  for  the  Congress. 

The  observation  of  the  5th  November,  the  30th  Janu- 

1  Convention  Journal,  1785. 


246  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

ary,  the  29th  May,  and  the  25th  October  was  omitted, 
and  instead  thereof  a  service  was  inserted  for  the  4th 
July,  "  being  the  Anniversary  of  Independence." 

(2)  CJuinges  in  the  Interest  of  Taste :  —  Such  as, 
"didst  humble  thyself  to  be  born  of  a  virgin,"  for 
"  didst  not  abhor  the  virgin's  womb ; "  omitting  the 
plain-spoken  and  objectionable  statement  of  the  pur- 
pose of  matrimony  from  the  exhortation  in  the  Mar- 
riage Service  ;  omitting  the  "  Commination,  or  denoun- 
cing of  God's  anger  and  judgment  against  sinners  ;  " 
numerous  verbal  changes  of  phrases  which  were  deemed 
inept  or  inelegant. 

(3)  Anti-Sacerdotal  Changes  :  —  For  example,  substi- 
tuting "  A  Declaration  to  be  made  by  the  ^Minister 
concerning  the  Forgiveness  of  Sins,"  for  "The  Absolu- 
tion or  Remission  of  Sins  to  be  pronounced  by  the 
Priest ; "  omitting  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  Baptism  ; 
omitting  the  phrase  "  regenerate  "  in  the  post-baptismal 
exhortation ;  changing  in  the  Catechism  the  definition 
of  tlie  effect  of  Baptism  from  "made  a  member  of 
Christ,  a  cliild  of  God,  and  an  inheritor  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,"  to  "  made  a  member  of  the  Christian 
Church  ;  "  omitting  "  unbaptized  "  from  the  limitations 
of  use  in  the  Burial  Service.^ 

(4)  Changes  in  the  Interest  of  Liberty  :  —  The  selec- 
tions of  Psalms  to  be  used  to  be  left  to  tlie  discretion  of 
the  Minister ;  and  likewise  the  Scripture  Lessons. 

(5)  Dogmatic  Changes  :  —  The  Athanasian  and  the 
Nicene  Creeds  were   omitted ;  the  "  descent  into  hell " 

1  The  animus  of  the  changes  under  this  liead  is  evident  from  the  fact 
that  the  book  was  long  afterward  reprinted  for  use  by  the  followers  of 
Bishop  Cummins. 


THE   FEDERAL   IDEA.  247 

was  left  out  of  the  Apostles'  Creed ;  the   Gloria  Patri 

was    omitted   after   the    versicles,    after   each   separate 

psalm,  and   generally  its    use   reduced   to   a  minimum  ; 

the  phrase  "damnation"  in  the  Communion  Warning 

was  altered  into  "  condemnation  ;  "  the  Avords  "  as  our 

hope  is  this  our  brother  doth,"  were  dropped  from  the 

Burial  Service,  —  and  the  like. 

Two  of  the  categories  deserve  special  consideration. 

The  Introduction  of  the  Office  for  the  Fourth  of  July 

was  a  source  of  much  uneasiness.     The  large 
Service  for  .      .  „       ,  , 

Fourth  of       majority    oi    the    clergy    and    people    were 

"  ^'  Tories.     It  was  asking  a  good  deal  to  expect 

them  to  adopt  the  frame  of  thankfulness  which  the 
service  postulates.  It  was  much  as  tliough  the  Confed- 
erate States'  Churchmen,  after  the  Civil  War,  should 
have  been  required  to  return  thanks  for  the  surrender 
at  Appomattox.  It  was  introduced  against  the  strenu- 
ous opposition  of  Dr.  White  and  such  unquestionable 
patriots  as  he.^  But,  as  is  so  likely  to  be  the  case, 
the  class  of  men  whom  General  Grant  graphically  de- 
scribed as  those  "  who  did  not  get  warmed  up  until  the 
tight  was  over,"  prevailed  to  have  it  introduced,  and  the 
Tory  members  of  the  Convention  allowed  it  to  pass  in 
silence.  In  after  years  it  might  well  have  found  a 
place  among  the  Offices,  but  at  the  time  it  could  but 
be  a  stumbling-block.  When  adopted,  Dr.  White,  who 
had  striven  against  it,  was  almost  the  only  man  who 
used  \i?  Only  in  two  or  three  places  outside  of  Phila- 
delphia was  it  ever  heard. 

1  White:  Memoirs,  p.  117. 

2  lb.,  p.  119. 


2i8  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

The  other  list  is  that  of  dogmatic  changes.  A  glance 
at  them  will  show  that  the  revisers  either  doubted  the 
Anti-doff-  truth  or  questioned  the  form  of  statement 
matic  spirit,  of  certain  doctrines  which  were  and  are  gen- 
erallj^  hekl  to  be  of  prime  importance.  Foremost  among 
them  is  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity.  Their  treatment  of 
it  leads  to  the  inquiry  whether  they  were  at  all,  and,  if 
so,  to  what  (Extent,  under  the  influence  of  the  Unitarian 
movement  th(;n  beginning  to  attract  attention  in 
America? 

As  has  beiMi  pointed  out,  the  Deistical  infidelity  so 
rife  in  England  and  so  prolific  of  evil  in  the  English 
life  of  the  eighteenth  century,  never  reached  the  same 
extent  in  this  country,  but  yet  it  made  itself  felt. 
About  17H0  the  negative  Deism  began  to  take  on  the 
positive  form  of  what  has  since  been  called  Unitarian- 
ism,  under  the  lead  of  Lardner  and  Priestly.^  In  the 
colonies  it  retained  its  negative  form,  and  in  that  shape 
spread  widely.  The  scepticism  of  Hume  and  Gibbon 
dominated  many  educated  men.  It  was  especiall}^  preva- 
lent in  the  Middle  and  Southern  colonies.^  In  Bostori 
and  its  neighborhood  it  put  on  the  dogmatic  dress  of 
Unitarianism.  In  that  shape  it  came  sharply  in  contact 
Unitarian-  with  the  Church.  The  minister  in  charge  of 
ism.  King's  Chapel,  Mr.  Freeman,  a  man  who  had 

not  yet  been  ordained  in  any  wise,  was  a  pronounced 
Unitarian.  The  majority  of  the  congregation  agreed 
with  him.  They  found  the  English  Prayer-Book  un- 
suited  to  their  use,  and  revised  it  so  as  to  eliminate  the 

1  Abbey:  English  Church  and  Bishops,  vol.  ii.  p.  129. 

2  Sabine:  Loyalists,  vol.  i.  p.  141. 


THE   FEDERAL   IDEA.  249 

doctrine   of   the    Trinity.      King's    Chapel   still    called 
itself  a  parish  of  the  Episcopal  Church.     When  Bishop 
Seabury  returned  with  his  office,  he  was  asked  to  ordain 
Freeman.    He  emphatically  declined.     Bishop  Provoost 
of  New  York  was  afterwards  solicited   to  do  the  same. 
He  neither  complied  nor  refused,  but  referred  the  matter 
to  the  Convention  for  advice  and   consent.     The  advice 
was  adverse.i     But  the  King  s  Chapel    people  declared 
that  they  were  justified  in  hoping  that  Bishop  Provoost 
would  comply,  on  account  of  what    they  knew  to  be  his 
own  sentiment  as  well  as  that  of  some  of  his  brethren 
in  Pennsylvania  and  the   South.^     They   said  that  he 
had  proposed  in  the  Convention  at  Philadelphia  to  omit 
the   Invocations  to   the  Son,  the  Holy  Ghost,  and   the 
Trinity,  from  the  Litany .^      Such  a  proposition  had  been 
made  in  the  Convention  ^  by  another  person,  and  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  it  expressed  a  prevalent  feeling, 
not  in  favor  of  Unitarianism,  but  against  the  attempt  to 
dogmatize  upon  the  great  mysteries  of  religion.^     This 
seems  to  be  the  key  to  the  final  action  of  the  Church  in 
both  directions.     They  cast  out  the  Athanasian  Creed, 
not  because  they  disbelieved  it,  but  because  they  dis- 
liked it  as  an  impotent  attempt  to  state  what  cannot  be 

1  History  of  Unitarianism:  fourth  edition,  Boston,  1815,  p.  13. 

3  Rev.  Dr.  DaCosta,  in  editing  the  memoirs  of  Bishop  White,  flatly 
denies  the  truth  of  this  statement,  and  refers  to  Wilson's  Life  of  Bishop 
White  for  its  refutation  (p.  325).  The  correspondence  of  Bishop  White 
there  printed  does  not  seem  to  furnish  the  refutation.  The  categorical 
assertion  of  Mr.  Belsham  appears,  in  the  absence  of  both  evidence  and 
probability  to  the  contrary,  to  be  correct. 

4  White:  Memoirs,  p.  116.  . 

5  Bishop  White  says:  "  I  am  no  friend  to  these  metaphysical  distinc- 
tions wliich  have  perplexed  the  present  subject  and  discredited  Divine 
truth."    Wilson:  Life  of  Bishop  White,  p.  325. 


250  THE   PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

stated.  On  the  other  liand,  they  woukl  not  ordain  Mr. 
Freeman  even  to  retain  the  King's  Chapel  congregation, 
because  they  equally  disliked  the  dogmatic  spirit  of 
Unitarianism.  This  seeming  lack  of  certitude,  want  of 
definiteness  in  doctrine,  this  repugnance  to  nice  defini- 
tions, was  altogether  distasteful  to  the  New  England 
Church.^  For  this,  in  some  places,  as  well  as  for  the 
very  opposite  reason  in  others,  the  Proposed  Book  was 
received  by  the  Church  generally  with  scant  favor. 
The  best  proof  of  this  was  that  it  would  not  sell.^ 
Even  when  Dr.  White  had  packages  of  them  sent  North 
and  South,  and  advertised  assiduously,  they  still  stood 
on  the  booksellers'  shelves.  New  England  would  not 
touch  it.  New  Jersey  flatly  rejected  it.  Maryland 
wanted  the  Nicene  Creed  put  back,  and  South  Carolina 
wanted  still  more  left  out.  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia 
proposed  still  further  amendments.  The  parishes  gen- 
erally kept  on  using  the  English  Book,  to  which  the}' 
were  accustomed,  the  officiating  minister  making  such 
changes  as  he  found  necessary. 

Having  formulated  a  Constitution  and  taken  the 
action  which  they  believed  would  settle  a  Liturgy,  the 
The  Epis-  Convocation  proceeded  to  consider  tlie  Epis- 
copate, copate.  In  this  also,  their  purpose  of  a 
National  Church  controlled.  They  had  no  mind  to 
send  one  of  their  number  abroad  for  consecration,  as 
Bishop  Seabury  had  gone,  accredited  only  by  a  little 
group  of  unknown  clergymen.    "Whoever  went  should 

1  Bishop  Seabury's  Second  Charge. 
1  Beartlsley :  Life  of  Seabury,  p.  267. 
1  Perry:  Hist.,  vol.  ii.  p.  119. 
■^  Beardsley:  Seabury,  p.  .309. 


THE   FEDEKAL   IDEA.  251 

go  with  a  backing-  and  autliority  which  would  compel  a 
speedy  answer  for  or  against  their  request.  Indeed  the 
leaders  among  them  had  determined  not  to  go  at  all 
without  an  assurance  in  advance  that  they  would  gain 
their  object.^  To  secure  this  they  drew  up  an  Address 
to  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  England. 

A.d{lrGSS  to  •  •  1*1 

the  English  In  it  they  set  forth  the  situation  m  whicli 
Bishops.  ^^^g  Episcopal  Churches  had  been  left  by  the 
result  of  the  War  for  Independence ;  acknowledge  the 
benefits  they  had  received  from  the  Motlier  Church  in 
former  days;  declare  their  intention  not  to  approach 
the  English  State  in  any  wise ;  and  ask  the  Bishops 
purely  in  their  spiritual  capacity  to  consecrate  such  fit 
men  as  the  Convention  rei)resenting  the  American 
Episcopal  Church  may  send.  They  intimate  plainly 
that  if  any  legal  obstacles  should  be  in  tlie  way  of  the 
Bishops  acting  in  the  matter,  it  must  be  their  own 
concern  to  have  them  removed. 

With  the  Address  Avere  sent  certificates  from  the 
Executives  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and 
Virginia,  to  the  effect  that  there  was  no  political  obsta- 
cle on  this  side  of  the  ocean,  and  that  the  Church,  when 
its  organization  should  have  been  completed  by  bishops, 
would  be  allowed  entire  liberty  to  live  unmolested.^ 
The  whole  was  intrusted  to  John  Adams,  the  Ameri- 
can ambassador  in  England.  Though  anything  but  a 
Churchman  himself,  he  performed  the  duty  required  of 


1  White:  Meninirs,  p.  lo9.  '•  They  who  went  had  all  along  made  up 
their  minds  not  to  go  ixntil  the  way  should  be  opened  by  previous 
negotiation." 

2  White:  Memoirs,  p.  22. 


252  THE   PKOTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

him  with  interest  and  zeal.^  He  laid  the  Address  and 
accompanying  certificates  before  the  Archbishop  in 
such  a  way  as  to  secure  immediate  and  practical 
attention. 

Meanwhile  the  Convention  adjourned  to  wait  a  reply. 
When  it  came  it  was  not  very  satisfactory.  Upon  the 
The  Bishops'  general  question,  the  Bishops  answered,  that 
reply-  they  were    ready  and  willing  to  consecrate, 

but  that  there  were  some  things  which  needed  to  first 
be  cleared  up.  Queer  stories  had  come  to  them  about 
this  Philadelphia  Convention,  It  was  reported  that 
they  had  thrown  overboard  all  the  Church's  Creeds,  or, 
at  least,  had  reduced  them  to  a  point  where  they  could 
hardly  be  seen  ;  that  they  had  torn  the  Prayer-Book  all 
to  shreds ;  that  they  had  adopted  a  Constitution  which 
gave  laymen  an  unheard-of  power  in  the  Church,  even 
to  the  extent  of  making  it  possible  for  them  to  pass 
judgment  on  bishops  ;  while  to  the  bishops  themselves 
no  real  power  was  given.  These  matters  needed  expla- 
nation. Until  further  information  should  be  received 
they  could  take  no  action.  If  a  satisfactory  explana- 
tion could  be  given,  or  if  the  obnoxious  arrangements 
should  be  modified,  they  stood  ready  to  consecrate. 

Upon  receipt  of  this  reply  the  Convention  was  hastily 
summoned  to  meet  at  Wilmington  in  October,  1786. 
The  meeting  was  short  and  effective.  They  prepared 
an  answer,  saying  that  the  Bishops  had  misapprehended 
the  position  given  to  the  laity  in  the  new  Constitution ; 

1  "  Tliere  is  no  part  of  my  life  on  wliich  I  look  back  with  more  satis- 
faction than  the  part  I  took,  bold,  daring,  and  hazardous  as  it  was  to  me 
and  mine,  in  the  introduction  of  Episcopacy  in  America."  — John  Adams, 
in  Letter  to  Bishop  White.     Wilson:  Life  of  Bishop  White,  p.  325. 


THE  FEDERAL   IDEA. 


253 


that  the  Nicene  Creed  and  the  Apostles'  Creed,  unmu- 
tilated,  woukl  he  retained;  that  the  English  Prayer-Book 
should  remain  as  the  standard  until  it  should  be  replaced 
by  a  National  Convention  with  unquestioned  power. 

Then  they  called  the  roll  of  States  to  know  if  any 

had   chosen   men    for   bishops.     New    York    responded 

with   the    name    of    Dr.  Provoost ;  Pennsyl- 

Bisnops  .  .    .  .   , 

chosen.  vania  with  that  of  Dr.  White  ;  Virgnna  with 

Dr.  Griffith. 

Maryland  had  chosen  the  celebrated  Dr.  Smitli  three 
years  before.  Distinguished  above  all  the  clergy  of  his 
time,  a  statesman,  a  theologian,  a  man  of  affairs,  a  Doctor 
of  Divinity  of  Dublin  and  Aberdeen,  the  leader  in  the 
Southern  Church,  and  the  oft-chosen  President  of  the 
Convention,  he  had  grave  defects  of  character,  which  led 
the  Convention  to  pass  him  by  in  silence.^  His  politi- 
cal career  had  been  open  to  serious  criticism.  He  had 
an  uncertain  temper.  He  had  determined  enemies. 
His  personal  habits  exposed  him  to  criticism,  even  in  a 
bibulous  age. 

Dr.  Griffith  found  himself  to  be  too  poor  to  make  the 
journey  to  England,  and  the  Church  in  Virginia  faded 
to  provide  him  with  the  means  to  pay  his  expenses.^ 

Drs.  White  and  Provoost  went  their  way  to  London, 
and  were  consecrated  bishops  in  Lambeth  Cliapel,  Feb- 
ruary 4,  1787.  The  next  day  they  turned  their  faces 
homeward,  and  entered  New  York  Harbor  Easter  Sun- 
day, 1787,  while  the  bells  of  Trinity  were  calling  the 
people  to  church. 

1  Smith:   Life  of  Dr.  Smith,  vol.  ii.  pp.  450-466. 

2  Convention  Journal  of  Va.,  1787,  May  19. 


254  THE   PKOTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    TWO    EPISCOPACIES. 

When  Dr.  Provoost  retuiiied  to  his  work  in  Trinity 
Church,  New  York,  and  Dr.  White  to  Christ  Church, 
Philadelphia,  commissioned  to  do  the  office  and  work  of 
bishops,  their  presence  completed  the  organization  of  a 
second  Episcopal  Church  in  America.  Bishop  Seabury 
had  been  at  work  in  Connecticut  for  eighteen  months. 
Rhode  Island  had  placed  herself  under  his  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction.  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire  had 
asked  for  his  episcopal  oversight. 

Thus  the  New  England  Church  had  been  built 
up  around  the  ecclesiastical  idea  which  animated  the 
ten  clergymen  at  Woodbury.  The  Federal  idea  had 
prevailed  in  the  other  States,  but  had  stopped  in  its 
eastward  progress  at  the  Housatonic.  Can 
Episcopal  the  two  Churches,  so  diverse  in  sentiment. 
Churches.  traditions,  and  ideals,  ever  coalesce?  The 
future  of  American  Episcopacy  is  involved  in  the  issue. 

Union  seemed  to  be  impossible.  Their  principles 
were  antagonistic  in  essentials,  and,  what  is  far  more 
potent  in  affecting  action,  their  passions  were  deeply 
moved.  In  the  East  they  were  Tories;  in  the  South 
they  were  Whigs.  It  was  a  time  when  political  feeling 
was  running  higher  than  it  has  ever  since  done,  with  the 


THE   TWO   EPISCOPACIES.  255 

single  exception  of  the  period  immediately  preceding 
the  Civil  War.i  A  band  of  well-known  gentlemen  of 
position  and  standing  had  just  vowed  to  murder  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  for  only  demanding  common  humanity 
in  the  treatment  of  Tories .^  The  laymen  in  the  South 
Obstacles  to  could  not  forget  that  Bishop  Seabury  had 
union.  been  a  British  partisan,  a  British  chaplain, 

and  that  his  name  was  still  l^orne  on  the  rolls  of  the 
British  army,  in  which  he  was  yet  receiving  the  pay  of 
a  retired  officer,  —  a  place  which  he  kept  till  the  day  of 
his  death.3  Bishop  Provoost  entertained  against  him  an 
implacable  hostility,  which  he  took  no  pains  to  conceal. 
He  introduced  into  the  convention  of  1786  a  resolution 
declaring  Seabury's  bishopric  invalid,*  in  which  he 
expressed  the  general  sentiment  of  the  New  York 
clergy. 

The  New  England  people,  on  their  part,  were  dis- 
trustful of  the  whole  spirit  of  the  Federal  Church. 
They  did  not  believe  its  leaders  to  be  sound  in  the 
faith  ;  and  were  sure  of  their  unsoundness  in  Church- 
manship.  The  place  given  to  laymen  in  the  Church's 
government  by  the  new  constitution  seemed  to  them 
a  subversion  of  ecclesiastical  order  and  Catholic  custom. 
The  proposed  Prayer-Book  was  abhorrent  to  them.  It 
was  a  monstrosity.  It  emptied  the  Sacraments  of  all 
meaning,  overturned  ancient  and  venerable  use,  and 
trampled  upon  traditions.     In  doctrine  the  antagonism 

'  McMaster:  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  128. 

2  Morse:  Life  of  Hamilton,  vol.  i.  p.  149. 

3  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  120. 

3  Norton :  Life  of  Bishop  Provoost,  p.  134. 

4  White:  Memoirs,  p.  161. 


256  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

seemed  to  be  still  greater.  Tlie  Convention  had  ruth- 
lessly thrown  out  the  two  chief  symbols  of  the  Faith, 
and  mutilated  the  third.  To  be  sure,  they  had  restored 
the  Nicene  Creed,  but  the  motive  under  which  they 
replaced  it  was,  if  possible,  worse  than  the  one  which 
had  led  to  its  omission.  The  Convention,  in  their  view, 
were  so  unmindful  of  the  awful  prescription  of  the  Creed 
that  they  were  ready  to  strike  it  out  for  a  caprice,  and 
to  restore  it  to  gain  the  end  they  sought  in  England. 
What  reason  was  there  to  believe  that  such  Churchmen 
would  ever  become  comfortable  yokefellows  with  the 
sons  of  the  New  England  converts,  and  the  spiritual 
brethren  of  the  Nonjurors?  A  federated  Episcopacy 
was  an  idle  and  dangerous  dream. 

So  convinced  were    the   Connecticut  clergy  of  this, 

and  so  angered  were  they  by  the  tone  of  their  neighbors, 

that  they  set  about  to  complete   their  own 

Plans  to  per-  ,  i       •  i      ■     i 

petuatethe  structure  and  make  it  permanently  mdepend- 
ivision.  ^^^^^  They  had  one  bishop ;  to  be  completely 
equipped,  they  would  need  two  more.  The  ancient  and 
wise  custom  of  assuring  against  hasty  consecration  by 
requiring  at  least  three  bishops  to  join  in  every  such 
act  was  recognized  by  both  churches.  The  Connecticut 
clergy  chose  Dr.  Jarvis  to  go  to  Scotland  to  the  Non- 
jurors, as  Dr.  Seabury  had  done.^  This  would  provide 
two.  For  the  third  they  moved  the  clergy  of  Massa- 
chusetts to  choose  Dr.  Parker  of  Boston,  who,  if  chosen, 
might  pursue  the  same  course.  In  that  event  a  New 
England  hierarchy  would  be  established  in  affiliation 
with  the  Scotch  Church.     Its  high  Churchmanship  and 

1  Ferry :  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  77. 


THE   TWO   EPISCOPACIES.  257 

its  soundness  in  the  traditional  faith  would  be  guaran- 
teed in  advance.  Fortunately  the  scheme  failed,  and 
America  was  spared  the  pragmatic  Church  which  would 
thus  have  risen.  Closely  related  as  it  would  have  been 
with  the  impracticable  Nonjurors,  and  out  of  sympathy 
with  the  political  movement  of  American  life,  it  would 
have  survived  as  a  standing  warning  against  Episco- 
pacy. But  the  danger  of  such  an  attempt  being  made 
was  very  real.  Through  Bishops  Seabury  and  White  it 
striving  for  ^^^^  averted.  Seabury's  clear  grasp  of  the 
unity-  nature  of  the  Episcopal  office  led  him  to  see 

that  the  solidarity  of  the  Episcopate  in  a  national  Church 
must  be  maintained.  Other  bishops  were  now  present 
in  America,  and,  let  the  estrangement  from  them  and 
theirs  be  what  it  might,  the  fact  must  be  recognized. 
He  was  quite  alive  to  the  political  dislike  in  which  he 
and  his  were  held.  He  was  still  more  alive  to  the 
laxity  of  the  Federal  Convention  in  doctrine  and  dis- 
cipline ;  but  he  also  saw  the  imperative  need  of  union. 
Putting  aside  all  personal  considerations,  he  wrote  to 
the  newly  made  bishops  a  letter  of  greeting  and  God- 
speed. He  offered  them  his  brotherly  hand.  He  as- 
sured them  of  his  sympathy  in  their  hope  for  a  united 
Church  ;  that  he  would  work  with  them  to  that  end ; 
that  he  would  be  glad  to  meet  with  them  as  bishops  at 
any  time  and  place  to  consult  of  the  matter ;  and  in- 
vited them  to  be  present  at  the  Convocation  to  meet  at 
Stamford  in  the  coming  Whitsuntide.  Up  to  this  time 
his  difficulty  had  been  that  there  was  no  power  in  the 
Federal  Church  with  which  he  could  negotiate.  Now 
there   was :  and    to  this  power   he  offered   his  memo- 


258  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

ranclum.  Bishop  Provoost  could  hardly  hring  himself 
even  to  make  a  courteous  reply  to  the  proffer  of  the 
Tory  ex- chaplain.  But  Bishop  Wiiite  was  quick  to 
seize  such  an  opportunity  to  further  the  federation. 
He  replied  that  union  was  the  prime  object  in  his  mind, 
as  it  had  always  been  ;  that  if  the  changes  in  the  Prayer- 
Book  were  the  obstacle,  he  himself  would  be  the  first 
man  to  have  them  modified ;  but,  he  states  frankly,  if 
the  Connecticut  people  insist  that  the  constitution  be 
changed  so  as  to  lodge  all  power  in  the  Episcopate,  and 
to  dislodge  the  lay  order  from  practical  share  in  Church 
government,  then  negotiation  will  be  hopeless;  in  that 
case  the  most  which  could  be  hoped  for  would  be  that 
the  Scotch -American  and  English -American  Churches 
might  live  side  by  side  as  friendly  neighbors.^  This 
letter  seems  to  mark  the  lowest  point  of  Bishop  White's 
hopefulness.  What  with  Bishop  Provoost's  savage  Whig- 
ger}^  the  Virginia  laymen's  partisan  feeling,  and  the 
quiet  reluctance  of  the  Connecticut  clei-gy,  the  task 
seemed  hopeless. 

As  the  Eastern  clergy  had  sought  for  Dr.  Parker  of 
Boston  to  fill  up  the  nonjuring  triad,  so  Bishop  White 
now  sought  for  him  to  complete  the  English  comple- 
ment. Dr.  Griffith  was  still  detained  in  Virginia  by  his 
poverty.  Dr.  Smith  of  Maryland,  the  other  bishop-elect, 
was  not  improving  either  in  temper  or  reputation,  and, 
in  any  case,  a  quiet  determination  not  to  accept  him  is 
evident  at  every  point.^  So  he  also  sought  the  Boston 
rector  for  the  third,  partly  on  account  of  his  high  charac- 

1  Bishop  White's  letter,  quoted  by  Perry :  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  80. 

2  Ferry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  79. 


EDWARD   BASS 

First  Bishop  of  Massachusetts 


THE   TWO   EnSCOPACIES.  259 

ter,  and  partly  as  a  strategic  move  to  detach  from  Con- 
necticut the  State  which  was  likely  to  be  her  first  ally. 

But  the  astute  Parker  had  a  project  of  his  own.  He 
had  no  notion  of  going  for  consecration  to  either  London 
Dr  Parker's  °^'  Aberdeen  ;  indeed,  he  did  not  Avant  the 
scheme.  office  at  all.     But  he  did  want  the  unity  of 

the  Church.  To  effect  this  he  cooked  a  plan  which  put 
all  the  bishops  in  a  corner.  Through  his  management 
the  few  clergy  in  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire, 
who  had  no  great  need  or  an}-  wish  for  a  bishop,  decided 
to  choose  Dr.  Bass  of  Newburyport  for  that  office,  and 
to  send  a  formal  request  to  all  three  Bishops  now  in  the 
States  to  unite  in  his  consecration.  This,  he  thought, 
they  could  not,  with  any  face,  refuse  to  do.  But  if 
they  should  do  it,  then  mutual  recognition  and  practical 
unity  would  be  an  accomplished  fact.  Organic  unity 
would  come  as  a  result. 

While  the  situation  stood  thus  the  time  came  for  the 
Convention  to  meet  at  Philadelphia  in  July,  1789.  The 
Convention  presentation  of  the  request  of  the  Massachu- 
ofi789.  setts  people  for  the  consecration  of  Dr.  Bass 

brought  up  the  whole  question  of  the  relation  of  the 
Churches.  Could  Connecticut  and  the  Federal  Bishops 
unite  in  this  act?  If  not,  why  not?  The  issue  was 
now,  thanks  to  Dr.  Parker,  squarely  before  the  Churcli, 
and  must  be  disposed  of.  Bishop  Seabury,  though  not 
present,  was  known  to  be  willing  to  act.  It  was  not 
thought  that  Bishop  Provoost,  also  absent,  would  stand 
out  against  any  agreement  which  might  be  reached. 
But  the  difficulty  now  was  with   Bishop  White.'     He 

1  White  :  Memoirs,  p.  28. 


260  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

would  be  only  too  glad,  personally,  to  join  in  the  conse- 
cration, but  he  felt  that  a  tacit  promise  had  been  given 
to  the  English  Bishops  that  no  such  action  would  be 
Bishop  taken    in    this   country  till    the  full  coniple- 

white  and       j^^ent  of  three  in  their  line  should  be  present. 

the  English  ^ 

succession.  It  was  true  that  no  such  explicit  promise  had 
been  given,  but  then  the  Act  of  Parliament  under 
which  he  and  Provoost  had  been  consecrated  provided 
for  three  bishops,  and  it  had  only  been  through  the 
accident  of  Dr.  Griffith's  detention  that  this  had  not 
been  done.  Besides  this,  and  still  more  weighty,  was 
the  fact  that  the  Scotch  nonjuring  Church,  from  which 
Seabury  derived  his  Episcopate,  was  not  recognized  by 
the  English  Church.^  Bishop  White  questioned  whether 
two  bishops  of  that  line  here  ought  to  venture  officially 
to  do  what  the  whole  English  Church  would  not  do  at 
home. 

The  result  of  the  deliberation  was  the  adoption  of  a 
set  of  resolutions,  which,  it  was  believed,  would  har- 
monize all  conflicting  interests.  They  are  a  model  of 
Christian  temper  and  sagacity. 

The  first  resolution  declares  it  to  be  the  sense  of  the 
Convention  that  there  subsists  now  in  the  United  States 
"  a  complete  order  of  bishops,  derived  as  well  under  the 
English  as  the  Scots  line  of  Episcopacy."  ^  This  recog- 
nized the  validity  of  Dr.  Seabury's  consecration  in  the 
independent  judgment  of  the  American  Episcopal 
Church. 

The  second  expands  the  first,  and  applies  it :  —  these 

>  White :  Memoirs,  p.  163. 

1  Grub:  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Scotland,  vol.  iii.  p.  370. 

3  White:  Memoirs,  p.  3%. 


THE   TWO   EPISCOPACIES.  2G1 

three  Bishops  liave  all  the  power  which  belongs  to  the 
office  in  respect  of  discipline,  limited  only  by  such 
canons  as  the  entire  Church  may  fix. 

The  third  declares  that  these  powers  should  be  exer- 
cised in  the  interest  of  the  Church  in  any  State  which 
may  need  and  require  their  use. 

The/oMrt/i  explicitly  requests  Bishops  Provoost  and 
White  to  join  with  Bishop  Seabury  in  the  consecration 
of  Dr.  Bass. 

The  fifth  takes  account  of  the  difficulty  in  the  way, 
and  promises  to  address  the  English  Bishops  to  have  it 
removed,  in  case  it  sliould  really  exist,  of  which  there 
is  reason  to  doubt. 

This  settled  one  of  the  points  of  disagreement.  Two 
others  still  remained.  The  Constitution  already  adopted 
Adjusting  ^^^  ^^°^  §"^^*^  ^°  ^^^®  Episcopate  a  separate  and 
differences,  independent  authority,  and  did  give  the  laity 
an  integral  place  in  the  Church's  government.  This 
the  Connecticut  people  opposed.  In  the  second  place, 
the  Prayer-Book,  as  it  had  been  changed,  was  obnoxious 
to  them.  The  Convention  now  reconsidered  both  these 
actions  so  far  as  to  leave  them  open  to  be  rediscussed 
and  acted  upon  by  the  united  Church,  in  case  the 
Connecticut  people  should  come  in. 

Having  done  so  much  and  notified  Connecticut  of  its 
action,  it  took  a  recess  till  the  following  September,  to 
await  the  result.  When  September  came.  Bishop  Sea- 
bury  came  also.  The  whole  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States  being  now  represented,  the  disjiuted 
articles  in  the  Constitution  were  brought  before  it. 
Upon  the  general  principle  of  admitting  the  laity  to  a 


262  THE   TROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

place  in  the  government,  the  Convention  stood  firm. 
They,  however,  modified  somewhat  the  application  of  it, 
and  safegnarded  it  against  the  possibilities  of  evil  which 
Bishop  vSeabnry  apprehended. 

In  the  matter  of  the  place  of  the  Episcopate  in  the 

government,  Bishop  Seal)ury's  Toryism  was  like  to  have 

wrecked  the  whole  enterprise.     The  laymen 

Bishop  Sea-  ^        .   .  "^ 

bury'sTory.    conld    not   get  over  that   British  half-pay  of 

^™'  his.     This  hateful  fact  bulked  so  before  their 

eyes  that  they  conld  not  see  the  ecclesiastical  question 
at  issue.  Fortunately  Bishop  White,  the  well-known 
patriot,  was  able  to  take  them  aside  and  show  them  that 
"  ecclesiastical  bodies  needed  not  to  be  over-righteous, 
or  more  so  than  civil  bodies,  on  such  a  point ;  "  ^  that 
this  was  a  dead  issue ;  that  the  half-pay  was  for  services 
rendered  long  ago,  and  did  not  prevent  him  now  being 
a  good  citizen  of  Connecticut ;  that  he  might  even  be 
returned  to  Congress  from  that  State,  and,  if  so,  could 
take  his  seat  with  the  half-pay  in  his  pocket.  The 
Bishop  was  able  to  persuade  the  Whig  gentlenien  to 
keep  silence.  The  Constitution  was  changed  to  the 
extent  of  constituting  the  Bishops  a  separate  House, 
only  providing  that  a  four-fifths  vote  of  the  other  House 
might  override  their  action.  With  this,  Connecticut 
was  fain  to  be  content. 

In  the  matter  of  a  Liturgy,  the  Proposed  Book  found 
Ad  tine  a  '^*^  *^"®  ^^  ^^^  ^  good  word  for  it.  It  was  re- 
Liturgy,  solved  that  the  point  of  departure  should  be 
the  English  Prayer-Book  in  common  use  ;  that  it  should 
be  revised  so  as  to  bring  it  into  harmony  with  the  politi- 

»  White :  Memoirs,  p.  168. 


THE  TWO   EPISCOPACIES.  263 

cal  status.  These  changes  were  made  with  care  and 
caution.  The  Fourth  of  July  service  departed  into 
obscurity  with  the  book  which  contained  it. 

An  Office  for  the  Visitation  of  Prisoners,  from  the 
Irish  Prayer-Book  ;  the  Thanksgiving  Day  Service  from 
the  Proposed  J^ook  ;  and  a  Form  of  Family  Prayer 
were  all  adopted.  The  Convention  would  not  accept 
the  Athanasian  Creed  on  any  terms,  though  Bishop 
Seabury  strenuously  urged  it.  But  it  accepted  at  his 
hands  the  Prayers  of  Consecration  from  the  Scotch 
Book. 

These  things  being  done,  the  Connecticut  people  form- 
ally gave  in  their  adhesion  ;  the  two  rival 
Churches  ceased  to  strive  ;  and  there  became 
one  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States, 


264  THE   PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHUliCH. 


CHAPTER  V. 

STEUCTUKAL    DEVELOPMENT. 

The  United  States  and  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  were  organized  the  same  year  and  largely  by 
the  same  hands.  In  both  cases  a  Federal  Government 
took  the  place  previously  occupied  by  a  congress  of 
independent  States.  The  constitutional  history  of  the 
Republic  in  the  century  which  has  succeeded  has 
attracted  many  pens.  A  brief  sketch  of  the  Church's 
structural  development  becomes  of  interest. 

In  the  experiment  then  begun,  the  State  had  an  infin- 
itely easier  task  than  the  Church.  For  a  century  and  a 
half  the  States  had  been  accustomed  to  self-government, 
to  a  large  degi'ee.  Indeed,  this  was  one  of  the  political 
inheritances  of  the  race.  The  town-meeting  then,  or 
even  now,  differs  little  from  the  folk-gatherings  of  the 
Germanic  peoples  two  thousand  years  ago.  In  the 
political  life  the  result  of  the  Revolution  did  little  more 
than  transfer  the  rule  from  King  and  Parliament  to 
President  and  Congress  ;  it  did  not  seriously  change 
the  subordinate  machinery  of  government  in  the  States, 
counties,  and  towns.  To  adjust  the  new  Federal  Con- 
stitution to  the  old  political  life  was,  therefore,  not  a 
difficult  task,  once  men's  passions  had  subsided. 

In  the  Church,  on  the  otlier  hand,  the  new  order  of 


STRUCTURAL  DEVELOPMENT.         265 

things  was  revolutionary  to  an  extent  hard  to  conceive. 
It  hroke  at  a  single  stroke  the  traditions  which  had 
controlled  Episcopacy  for  more  than  a  thou- 
m''ent«voiu-  sand  years.  Tlie  Church,  nowhere  more 
tionary.  ^^^^^^   ^^^   England,  had   been   accustomed   to 

associate  Episcopacy  with  Monarchy.  Churchmen  them- 
selves were  under  the  domination  of  this  idea.  For 
more  than  two  centuries  the  conge  cVelire  of  the  king 
had  been  taken  as  authority  in  the  choice  of  a  bishop. 
Convocation  had  been  silent  for  so  many  years  that 
men  had  nearly  forgotten  its  existence.  Even  when  it 
did  possess  life  it  was  not  a  popular  body,  deriving  its 
authority  from  tlie  people,  but  an  agent  whose  powers, 
at  the  last  analysis,  were  inherent  in  the  State.  In  the 
long  struggle  between  King  and  Parliament  the  people 
had  gained  the  right,  and  ever  since  exercised  the  habit, 
of  self-government  in  secular  things ;  but  in  the  same 
struggle  the  Church  had  stood  by  the  King,  and,  in 
consequence,  remained  bound  by  the  ancient  fetters. 
So  long  had  this  continued  that  Churchmen  had  not 
only  lost  the  habit,  but  also  the  wish,  for  independent 
action.  The  familiar  forms  of  procedure  wliereby  the 
peoj)le  registered  their  votes,  and  made  known  their  will 
in  political  things,  were  not  the  wont  of  the  Church. 

From  government  by  bishops,  themselves  the  creat- 
ures of  the  king,  to  government  by  a  convention  made 
u[)  of  popularly  selected  bishops,  priests,  and 
bywnven.      laymen,    is    a  tremendous    leap.     When    the 
*^°°'  convention  is  composed  of  men  who  had  been 

born    and    reared    and    had    their    habits    fixed    under 
another  ecclesiastical  system,  the  wonder  at  its  success 


266  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

becomes  still  greater.  It  took  long  to  disentangle  this 
primitive  Church  revived  from  the  traditions  of  the 
monarchical  period.  Reactionaries  even  yet  dream  of 
the  time  when  Charles  First  was  king. 

The   immediate    task    before    the     newly    federated 

Church  was  to  adjust  the  mutual  relations  of  bishops, 

clergy,  and  laity.     Each  order  had  an  inde- 

Relation  of  .  .  ,  .  tt 

the  three  pendent  voice  in  the  management.  How 
orders.  could  they  act  harmoniously  ?     The  introduc- 

tion of  the  laity  into  the  place  assigned  to  them  was  a 
momentous  step.  The  ecclesiastical  mind  of  New  Eng- 
land was  opposed  to  it  entirely.  Connecticut  only  came 
into  the  federal  association  upon  the  formal  assurance 
that  lay  representation  was  but  a  privilege  allowed  to 
any  State,  which  it  might  waive  Avithout  suffering 
any  diminution  of  its  own  strength  in  representation. ^ 
They  accepted  it  as  a  privilege  of  doubtful  wisdom,  but 
sent  lay  delegates  in  1792.  Even  after  a  century  has 
elapsed  they  still  exclude  laymen  from  the  Standing 
Committee.  Upon  the  whole,  however,  this  most  revo- 
lutionaiy  of  the  changes  introduced  became  soonest 
accepted  and  fixed  in  a  well-defined  function. 

There  was  far  more  confusion  as  to  the  rights  and 
powers  of  bishops.  In  the  colonial  days  the  absence  of 
The  powers  discipline  was  constantly  deplored.  It  was 
of  bishops,  absent  because  no  bishop  was  present.  A 
simulacrum  of  it  appeared  in  the  person  of  the  Bishop 

1  "  The  Church  in  each  State  shall  he  entitled  to  a  representation  of 
clergy  or  laity  or  both.  In  case  the  Church  of  any  State  should  neglect 
or  decline  to  appoint  these  deputies  of  either  order,  or  if  it  should  be 
their  rule  to  appoint  only  out  of  one  order,  the  Church  in  such  State 
shall  nevertheless  be  considered  to  be  duly  represented  ...  by  either 
order."    (Letter  of  Federal  Convention  to  Bishop  Seabury.) 


STRUCTURAL  DEVELOPMENT.         267 

of  London's  Commissary ;  but  what  power  he  pos- 
sessed was  I'ecognized  to  be  but  delegated  by  his 
principal,  in  whom  it  inhered.  Now  that  a  bishop  was 
on  the  ground,  what  rights  and  powers  are  his  ?  How 
far  may  they  be  modified  or  restrained  in  action  by  the 
co-ordinate  powers  of  clei'gy  and  laity  in  convention  ? 
In  one  form  or  other,  this  question  has  been  before  the 
American  Church  for  a  century.  The  general  drift  has 
been  toward  that  undue  limitation  of  their  inherent 
powers  which  Bishop  Seabury  feared.  Their  unquali- 
fied power  of  "  visitation  "  Avas  at  first  conceded. ^  It 
was  not  only  their  right  but  their  duty  to  make  inquisi- 
tion of  the  working  of  every  minister  in  his  cure  ;  "  to 
examine  the  state  of  his  church  and  inspect  the  behav- 
ior of  the  clergy."  The  minister  and  church-wardens 
are  charged  to  give  their  bishop  the  information  he 
asks.2  The  Diocesan  Convention  has  long  since  as- 
sumed this  power.  It  is  to  it  that  such  reports  are  now 
"Visita-  made,  for  information  only,  and  not  as  a 
tion."  possible  ground  of  discipline.     The  bishop's 

power  of  initiation  in  the  exercise  of  clerical  discipline, 
the  power  which  by  right  and  immemorial  custom  has 
always  inhered  in  his  office,  has  been  almost,  if  not 
entirely,  taken  from  him  and  lodged  elsewhere.^  The 
party  offending  is  not  now  to  be  summoned  by  the  bishop 
to  give  an  account,  but  presented  for  trial,  if  any  of  his 
brethren  volunteer  this  service,  before  a  court  from  which 
the  bishop  is  for  the  most  part  excluded.'*    In  the  matter 

1  Canon  iii.  1789. 

2  Canon  xi.  1789. 

3  Gen.  Con.  Canons,  Title  11. 

*  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania.     Canon  xvii. 


268  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUKCH. 

of  ordination,  the  distinguishing  function  of  the  Epis- 
copate, the  same  gradual  process  of  restriction  has  oc- 
curred. The  duty  to  select  fit  persons,  and  to  pass  upon 
their  qualifications  for  the  ministry,  has  always,  by 
ancient  usage,  been  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  bishop 
in  his  capacity  of  chief  pastor.  Before  the  federation. 
Bishop  Seabury  exercised  this  power  without  question.^ 
It  was  the  same  authority  which  had  warranted  the 
English  bishops  in  ordaining  him  and  the  hundreds  of 
others  who  had  crossed  the  sea  for  that  end  in  colonial 
times.  There  the  bishop  had  not  been  hindered  in  his 
right  to  beget  spiritual  children.  The  convention  at 
once  set  limits  to  episcopal  discretion  here.  It  pre- 
cluded the  bishop  from  laying  hands  on  any  man,  unless 
he  had  reached  a  certain  age,  and  had  a  field  of  work 
guaranteed ;    but  this  was  only  putting  an  old  custom 

into  the  form  of  a  law.     Within  these  limits 
Encroach- 
ment by  it  left   the  bishop  free  to    act.     It  provided 

ing  Com-  ^o^"  ^^i^^^  ^'^  agent  in  the  Standing  Committee 
mittee.  whose  duty  it  would  be  to  examine  for  him 

the  candidates'  fitness,  but  recognized  his  original 
power  by  the  provision  that  "  every  candidate  for 
Holy  Orders  shall  be  recommended  according  to  .  .  . 
the  requisites  of  the  bisliop  to  whom  he  applies."  ^  But 
as  time  went  on,  the  Standing  Committee  ceased  to  act 
as  the  bishop's  agent,^  and  came  to  be  regarded  as  hav- 
ing an  independent  authority  of  its  own  in  the  premises. 
Then    a  still   more  radical  departure  from  its  original 


1  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabury,  p.  213. 

*  Canon  vi.  1789. 

3  It  was  first  called  the  "  Bishops'  Council  of  Advice." 


STRUCTURAL  DEVELOPMENT.         269 

function  insensibly  took  place,  and  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee came  to  be  thought  of  as  representing  the  clergy 
and  laity  !  It  is  usually  so  regarded  now.  From  being 
the  bishop's  creature,  it  has  become  the  Diocesan  Con- 
vention's representative.  In  this  capacity  a  mixed  body 
of  clergymen  and  laymen  now  divides  with  the  bishop 
the  power  of  selecting  fit  persons  for  the  ministry,  and 
leaves  him  the  power  to  ordain  only  such  persons  as  it 
may  think  worthy.^ 

While  the  power  of  bishops  in  their  individual  capac- 
ity has  been  steadily  circumscribed,  so  that  of  the 
Power  of  House  of  Bishops  has  been  extended.  The 
House  of         ^j,g^  provision  was  to  give  them  only  a  seat 

Bishops  in-  i  o  "^_  _ 

creased.  ex  officio  among  the  other  clergy.     With  this 

Bishop  Seabury  would  in  no  wise  be  content.  Then 
they  were  constituted  a  separate  House  with  power  to 
originate  measures,  but  without  an  absolute  negative 
upon  the  other  House.  The  clergy  and  laity  could 
pass  any  measure  over  their  heads  by  a  four-fifths  vote, 
or  through  the  bishops'  failure  to  negative  it  within  a 
limited  period  of  two  days.^  Twenty  years  later  both 
these  restrictions  upon  independent  action  were  re- 
moved, and  the  House  of  Bishops  received  the  power 
which  has  often  stood  the  Church  in  good  stead.^ 

1  Gen.  Con.  Canons,  Title  I.  Canons  1-8. 

Among  the  "  Fundamental  Rights  and  Liberties"  laid  down  in  the 
Convention  of  1783,  as  the  basis  of  federation,  is  the  following:  "The 
clergy  shall  be  deemed  adequate  judges  of  the  ministerial  commission 
and  authority,  and  of  the  literary,  moral,  and  religious  qualifications  and 
abilities  of  persons  to  be  nominated  to  the  different  orders  of  the  minis- 
try; but  the  approving  and  receiving  such  persons  to  any  particular  cure, 
duty,  or  parish,  when  so  nominated,  set  apart,  con.seciated,  and  ordained, 
is  in  the  people  who  are  to  support  them,  and  to  have  the  benefit  of  theii 
ministry."     Wliite:  Memoirs,  p.  94. 

2  Constitution,  ITSi). 

8  Gen.  Con.  Journal,  1808. 


270  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

This  same  tendency  toward  legal  rather  than  personal 
authority  shows  itself  also  in  the  provision  for  the  godly 
Discipline  of    tliscipline  of  the  laity.     Virginia  objected  to 
the  laity.        the   "  Proposed    Book  "    because    it   gave  to 
the  priest  the  po\ver  to  repel  unworthy  persons  from  the 
Holy    Communion.     The  sense  of   the  united  Church 
was  so  much  the  other  way,  however,  that  it  not  only 
allowed  this  power  to  the  priests,  but  extended  the  lati- 
tude within  which  the  book  restricted  it.     The  English 
rubric  required  the  priest  in  such  a  cause  to  report  the 
case    to    the    Ordinary    within    fourteen   days   at    the 
farthest.     The   American  only  required  him  to    do   so 
as   soon  as    conveniently   may  be.     The    English   rule 
required   the    bishop  to   institute  an   inquiry  into  the 
facts    of   every  such  case  as  soon  as  reported  to  him. 
The    American    says   he   need   not    do   so   unless    the 
repelled  person  asks  for  such  a  trial  in  writing,  within 
a  fixed  term,  after  which  his  case  shall  go  by  default. 
In  such  a  cause  the  bishop,  the  priest,  and  the  person 
repelled   were    the    only    parties.     The    bishop  was   at 
liberty  "  to  proceed  according  to  such  principles  of  law 
and  equity  "'  as  he  might,  and  his  judgment  was  linal. 
But,  as  the  spirit  of  government  by  convention  gained 
sway,  the  personal  authority  of  both  bishop  and  priest 
was   circumscribed.      The  Convention  provided   for  a 
regular    process   of   trial  for  a  repelled   communicant, 
either  by  its  own   canons,  or  by  such  as  the  Diocesan 
Conventions  might  adopt.^    Diocesan  Conventions  drew 
the  restrictions  still  closer,  and,  in  some  cases,  set  up 
mixed   courts    of   clergy  and   laymen   for  such   cases.'-^ 

1  Canon  xlii.  1832. 

2  Penna.  Canon  xviii. 


STRUCTURAL  DEVELOPMENT.         271 

The  whole  legal  history  of  the  Church,  in  fact,  is  Init  a 
record  of  the  successive  assumptions  of  power  by  the 
General  Convention. 

From  the  outset  the  Liturgy  was  taken  under  its  con- 
trol.    During  the  whole  colonial  period  there  had  been 

n  .  ^  P  a-reat  laxity  in  the  use  of  the  Prayer-Book. 
Control  of        »  ^  ... 

the  Liturgy.    But  few  people  possessed  copies  of  it,  and  in 

public  worship  the  ''  clerk  "  spoke  for  all  the  congrega- 
tion. Beside  that,  there  had  been  no  power  present  to 
enforce  uniformity.  But  the  practice  of  the  two  hun- 
dred years  since  the  English  Church  had  avowed  her 
settled  purpose  to  bring  all  her  members  into  one  uni- 
form mode  of  worship  had  produced  its  effect.  The 
possibility  of  variety  of  use  in  the  same  National 
Church  had  ceased  to  be  thought  of.  The  Convention 
at  once  assumed  unquestioned  control  in  the  matter, 
and  set  before  itself  uniformity  as  an  end.  In  the 
early  reports  upon  the  "  State  of  the  Church,"  one  item 
always  records  the  extent  to  which  this  had  been 
attained  in  each  State.^  The  success  was  finally  abso- 
„,    ,       ,      lute.     From  Maine  to  California  uniformity 

Tendency  to  -^ 

uniformity,  ^y.^g  exacted.  When  that  had  been  achieved 
there  came  a  reaction  which  threatened  revolution. 
Ritual  violations  of  law  began  to  show  themselves 
everywhere.  They  were  quite  as  much  rebellions 
against  mechanical  routine,  as  the  outcome  of  strange 
doctrine.  The  next  phase  of  the  history  is  that  long- 
drawn  effort  in  which  the  Convention  is  now  engaged,  to 
stamp  out  the  wide-spread  insurrection  against  its  law 
of  ritual  uniformity.     Its  sway  in  this  regard  was  only 

1  General  Con.  Journal,  1820. 


272  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

achieved  by  persistent  effort  through  half  a  century ;  a 
second  half-century  may  see  it  overthrown  or  abdicated. 

Over  Hymns  as  well  as  Prayers,  the  Convention 
stretched  out  its  hand.  It  early  assumed  the  power  to 
say  what  might  be  sung,  and  what  might 
not.  At  a  later  date  it  set  forth  tunes  as 
well,  and  with  the  same  right.  Nor  has  the  assumption 
been  generally  questioned.  Its  power  to  authorize 
certain  selections  from  religious  poetry  has  been  re- 
garded as  carrying  with  it  the  power  to  exclude  all 
others. 

It  has  not  hesitated  to  take  cognizance  of  the  per- 
sonal actions  of  individual  clergymen,  and  to  instruct 
them  to  keep  away  from  one  another's  field  of  work, 
It  has  taken  notice  of  the  daily  life  of  the  laity,  and 
prescribed  rules  for  tlieir  personal  conduct.^ 

The  original  Act  of  Association  stipulated :    "  That 

no  powers  be  delegated  to  a  general  ecclesiastical  gov^ 

ernment,  except  such  as  cannot  be  conven- 
Powers  of 
General  Con-    iently  exercised  by  the   clergy  and  laity  in 

their  respective  congregations."     In  a  cent 

ury  the  same  "general  ecclesiastical  government"  has 

gathered  into  its  hands  all  authority.     It  would  be  dif' 

ficult   to   say  what  it  might   not   legally  do.     In   tho 

absence  of  any  supreme  ecclesiastical  court  to  interpret 

the    Constitution  with    authority,   any  local   power   to 

withstand  its  mandates,  any  authority  to  enforce  tho 

1  "  All  persons  within  this  Church  shall  celebrate  and  keep  the  Lord's 
Day,  commonly  called  Sunday,  in  hearing  the  Word  of  God  read  and 
taught,  in  private  and  public  prayer,  in  other  exercises  of  devotion,  and 
in  acts  of  charity,  using  all  godly  and  sober  conversation."  Cauon 
xlii.  1832. 


STRUCTURAL  DEVELOPMENT.         273 

terms  of  the  original  compact,  there  would  seem  to  be 
no  limit  set  to  the  Convention's  power  except  its  own 
will.i 

The  parties  to  the  original  federation  were  the 
Churches  in  the, several  States.  In  the  early  years  of 
State  "   ^^^^  history  these  are  uniformly  thought  and 

autonomy.  spoken  of  as  possessiug  independent  lives. 
The  old  ideal  of  National  Churches  was  always  present 
to  the  minds  of  the  founders,  but  their  thought  of 
nationality  attached  itself  to  the  independent  State 
rather  than  to  the  federated  Union.  In  fact,  that 
federation  was  not  yet  accomplished,  and  there  was 
grave  reason  to  doubt  if  ever  it  would  be.  Virginia  or 
Connecticut  were  far  more  substantial  realities  than 
was  the  United  States.  This  way  of  thinking  survived 
-until  a  generation  grew  up  under  the  flag  of  the 
Federal  Union.  Then  it  was  seen  that  while  State 
lines  mi^ht  be  convenient  boundaries  for  ecclesiastical 
dioceses,  there  was  no  necessary  relation  between  the  two 
things.  The  quality  of  nationality  could  not  be  claimed 
for  an  individual  State  to  the  extent  which  would  war- 
rant the  inhabitants  of  it  acting  as  a  National  Church. 
This  quality  had  insensibly  transferred  itself  to  the 
Federal  Union.  When  this  fact  came  to  be  recognized, 
there  was  no  principle  to  hinder  the  division  of  a  State 
into  convenient  dioceses,  or  the  grouping  of  several 
States  into  one  ecclesiastical  district.^  But  when  this 
was  done,  and  New  York  had  been  divided,  tlie  accepted 


1  Dr.  Francis  Wharton,  in  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  400. 

2  "  Address  to  the  Clergy  and  Laity  of  the  P.  E.  Church  residing  in 
the  Western  Part  of  the  State  of  New  York,"  1835,  p.  20. 


274       THE  protp:stant  EnscorAL  church. 

principle  of  representation  at  once  became  indefensible. 
State  autonomy  had  disappeared.  The  idea  of  diocesan 
Gradually  autonomy  had  not  yet  emerged.  The  States 
abandoned.  \^q^^  j^r^^j  j^j^  equal  representation  in  conven- 
tion allowed  them  from  the  first.  But  this  was  not 
from  any  idea  of  diocesan  equality,  but  from  the 
thought  of  each  being  a  National  Church.  That  prin- 
ciple being  abandoned,  an  equal  representation,  regard- 
less of  numl^ers  or  strength,  became  at  once  inequitable. 
But  the  method  had  become  intrenched  in  custom,  and 
acquired  the  authority  of  prescription,  and  so  it  sur- 
vived. It  became  only  a  question  of  time,  however, 
as  to  when  the  Church  should  recognize  the  change  in 
the  fact,  and  bring  her  practice  to  conform  thereto. 

The  same  lust  of  legislation  which  led  the  Convention 
to  regulate  prayer,  praise,  and  conduct,  led  it  also  to 
enact  by  law  a  detailed  system  of  doctrine. 

In   the    sixteenth   century    the   Church    of   England 

had  been  coerced  by  the  doctrinal  spirit  of  the  age  to 

set  forth  a  detailed  body  of  divinity  in  her 

The  Articles,  .  ,  .  ^    "^  .  •' 

and  their         Thiyty-nine  Articles.     The  action  was  foreign 

oriffin. 

to  her  genius.     But  the  Romanists  had  their 

Tridentine  formularies;  the  Lutherans  their  Augsburg 

Confession  ;  the  Calvinists  the  Westminster  Confession, 

and  the  Church  of  England  was  driven  by  the  Zeitgeist 

to  become  '"  like  unto  the  nations."     The  adoption  of 

such  a  detailed  system  of  theology  was  contrary  to  her 

history   and  traditions.      The  Confession   remained    in 

her  body   like  a  foreign    suljstance,  irritating,  until    it 

became  encysted  and  forgotten.     When  the  American 

Church    was    organized    it    had   a   chance    to   rectify 


STRUCTUKAL  DEVELOPMENT.         275 

the  error.  A  wish  widely  prevailed  to  omit  the 
Articles  altogether.  Their  importance  was  deemed 
so  subsidiary  that  they  were  set  aside  until  all  else 
was  settled.  Then  the  question  came  up,  Shall  this 
Church  formulate  a  body  of  doctrine  ?  Shall  it  exact 
subscription  thereto?  In  1799  the  question  was 
brought  forward  concerning  the  Articles.  These  had 
not  been  bound  up  with  the  Prayer-Books  which  had 
been  used  in  America  for  more  than  a  generation. 
They  had  been  thought  of  as  standing  upon  the  same 
ground  that  the  Homilies  did,  and  were  little,  if  at  all, 
known  by  the  people.^  The  Convention  went  into 
Committee  of  the  Whole  upon  the  subject.  When  it 
rose  the  chairman  reported  the  following,  which  they 
had  agreed  upon  :  ••'  Resolved^  That  the  articles  of  our 
faith  and  religion  as  founded  on  the  Holy  Scriptures 
are  sufficiently  declared  in  our  Creeds  and  our  Liturgy 
as  set  forth  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  established 
for  the  use  of  this  Church,  and  that  further  articles  do 
not  appear  necessary." 

Unfortunately,  the  House  saw  fit  to  vote  against  the 
resolution^  which  it  had  just  agreed  to  in  committee. 
The  Bishops  were  in  favor  of  adopting  the  Articles. 
Two  years  later,  some  political  modifications  having 
been  made,  they  were  adopted  as  a  whole.  They  were 
Their  bind-  ordered  to  be  bound  up  with  the  Prayer-Book 
ing  force.  i^  -^^w  future  editions.  No  formal  subscrip- 
tion to  them  was  prescribed.  There  they  have  stood 
since.      What   binding    force    upon    belief    they   may 

1  Letter  from  a  Cluirchman  to  His  Friend  in  New  Haven,  1808,  p.  29. 

2  Con.  Journal,  June  14,  1799. 


276  THE   PROTESTANT   EriSCOrAL   CHURCH. 

carry,  each  decides  for  himself.  Tliey  are  a  section 
of  sixteenth-century  thought  transferred  to  the  nine- 
teenth. They  have  never  exercised  any  appreciable 
influence  upon  the  life  or  belief  of  this  Churcli.  Like 
all  contemporary  Confessions,  they  have  largely  ceased 
to  be  intelligible.  They  are  a  water-mark  of  a  previous 
tide.  The  current  of  the  Church  has  flowed  on  un- 
mindful of  them.  The  last  revision  of  the  Prayer-Book 
provides  for  their  being  bound  up  next  its  cover ;  the 
next  will  probably  bind  them  outside. 


FROM   THE   OLD   TO  THE   NEW.  277 


CHAPTER   VI. 

FROM   THE  OLD   TO   THE    NEW. 

Between  1790  and  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812,  a 
profound  change  occurred  in  America.  It  was  the 
passage  from  colonial  to  modern  life.  The  Revolution 
had  made  it  necessary  and  cleared  the  way  for  it.  The 
Federal  Constitution  had  fixed  the  lines  of  its  ultimate 
development.  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  was 
equipped  to  keep  step  with  it.  But  the  mature  men  of 
1790  had  been  reared  in  a  social,  religious,  and  commer- 
cial environment  as  different  from  that  into  which  their 
sons  emerged  when  they  took  the  management  of  affairs, 
as  could  well  be  imagined.  The  fathers,  both  in  Church 
and  State,  had  been  wise  builders.  But  they  were  as 
little  at  home  in  the  house  which  they  had  erected  as  is 
the  plain  and  successful  man  of  business  in  the  splen- 
did mansion  which  he  builds  for  his  children  after  he 
has  made  his  fortune.  The  Revolutionary  men  were 
Change  of  ^^°  oldto  adjust  themselves  easily  to  the  new 
manners.  regime.  That  compelled  the  abandonment  of 
old  customs,  and  prejudices  still  more  close-clinging 
than  custom.  Wigs  were  laid  aside.  The  sword,  here- 
tofore the  badge  of  a  gentleman,  ceased  to  be  carried; 
Distinctions  of  social  raidv  were  beginning  to  fade,  to 
the    great   disturbance    of    them  of    the  ancien  rSybne. 


278  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUPtCH. 

The  formal  manners  of  the  colonial  period  were  passing 
away,  and  the  sharp,  business-like  intercourse  of  mod- 
ern times  was  coming  in.^     The  bishops  and  statesmen 
who   were  to  the  fore  at  the  beginning  of  the  period 
were  men  of  the  old  school.     Those  whom  we  shall  see 
at  its  end  were  modern  men.     The  change  from  the  old 
order  to  the  new  led  through  an  unliappy  and  turbulent 
epoch.     In  its  turmoils  the  men  of  clear  vision,  saga- 
cious mind,  and  strong  hand,  who  had  fought  a  battle 
Old  men  and    '^ga,ii^st  odds,  cemented  the  State,  founded  a 
new  times.       Nation,  and  organized  a  Church,  one  by  one 
dropped  out  of  sight.     It  seemed  as  though  the  titanic 
task  they  had  accomplished  had  drained  their  energies. 
One  of  the  most  brilliant  epochs  in  the  history  of  the 
American  people  is  followed  closely  by  one  of  the  dark- 
est.    The  body  politic  and  the  body  ecclesiastic  seemed 
exhausted  after  the  strain  of  the  great  effort  for  inde- 
pendence.     Disorders    of   all    sorts    broke  out   in    the 
depleted  system.     Virulent  party  strife  racked  it  with 
pains.    Federalist  and  anti-Federalist  assailed  each  other 
with  a  rancor  unknown  in  modern  politics.     No  name 
was  so  great  and  no  character  so  high  as  to  bring  its 
owner   safety.      Washington   was   called    a    '•  fool   by 
nature,"  and  Franklin  a  '^  fool  by  old  age."      Scurrilous 
pamphlets,  abounding  in  personalities,  pasquinades,  and 
libellous  newspaper  articles  were  the  least  objectionable 
of  the  weapons  used.i     When  these  were  not  violent 
enoup-h,  clubs  and  smallswords  took  their  places.     Both 
parties   agreed    in    attacking  what    they   thought   the 

1  Johnson:  History  of  the  U.S.,  p.  1G7. 

1  M'Master:  History  of  the  U.S.,  vol.  i.  ch.  5. 


FROM   THE   OLD   TO   THE   NEW.  279 

shameful  extravagance  of  Congressmen.  States  wran- 
gled about  the  ownership  of  the  public  lands,  and  while 
they  argued,  land-jobbers  stole  them.^  Debate  ran  fierce 
and  high  about  slavery.  The  smallpox  devastated  New 
A  dark  England,  and  the  yellow-fever  threatened  to 

epoch.  depopulate  Philadelphia  and  New  York.     A 

shameful  panic  seized  the  people.  Ties  of  nature  and 
of  affection  were  disregarded,  and  each  man  thought 
only  of  himself.  The  horrid  selfishness  of  fear  demor- 
alized the  populace.  The  Indians  broke  out  against  the 
frontiersmen  on  the  Ohio  and  the  Maumee.  Harmer 
and  St.  Clair  were  beaten  by  their  savage  enemies,  and 
it  looked  as  though  the  movement  westward  would  be 
stayed  at  the  Ohio.  Algerine  pirates  seized  upon  the 
ships  of  the  new  nation  and  sold  their  crews  into  a 
hopeless  slavery.  Speculation  ran  rife.  Even  city 
councils  took  to  gambling.  Drunkenness  threatened 
to  debauch  the  nation.  In  the  Western  settlements 
whiskey  was  the  only  currency  used.  A  tax  on  its 
manufacture  raised  an  insurrection  which  it  required 
the  national  resources  to  suppress.  In  1810  there  were 
fourteen  thousand  distilleries  in  the  country,  producing 
two  and  a  half  gallons  of  raw  spirits  annually  for  every 
person  in  the  population,  a  rate  never  since  reached.^ 
The  subsiding  animosity  against  England  and  all  things 
English  v/as  fanned  into  a  new  flame  by  the  terms  of 
the  British  Treaty  and  the  hateful  Tory  claims.^ 
"  M'Fingal,"  a  satire  upon  the  Tories,  after  the  manner 

1  Hawks:  Ecclesiastical  Contributions,  vol.  Va.,  Appendix,  p.  81. 

2  Schouler:  History  of  the  U.S.,  vol.  ii. 

3  lb.,  vol.  i.  pp.  456,  459. 


280  THE   PROTESTANT   EriSCOPAL   CHURCH. 

of  "Hudibras,"    was    in   every    hand  and  npon   every 

tongue.^ 

It   was    the    period    dominated   by  French  infidelity. 
The  service  rendered  the  Americans  by  Lafayette   and 
ch  infi-     ^^^^  compatriots  during  the  war  had  won  the 
deiity.  people's  heart.     France  seemed  to  promise  a 

sister  republic.     Previous  to  the  reaction  caused  by  the 
atrocities  of  the   French  Revolution,  French    manners 
were  all  the  rage.     Talleyrand,  the  apostate  Bishop  of 
Autun,    De    Noailles,  Rochefoucauld,    Louis    Fliilippe 
himself,  were  honored  guests.     The  tri-colored  cockade 
was    the    favorite   decoration.       The    shallow   atheism 
which   led  the    French  to  abolish  God  by  decree  was 
widespread  here.     Jefferson  was  its  scarcely  disguised 
apostle.     Tom  Paine  became  its  champion.     His ''Age 
of   Reason,"   published  in  1794,  had  a  circulation  and 
an  influence  hardly  equalled  by  any  single  book  since.^ 
Its   succinct,  portable,   and  specious,   even   if  shallow, 
arcTuments  commended  it  to  the  thousands  who  were 
already  under  the  influence   of   the  same   spirit   from 
which  it  emanated,  and  were  delighted  to   find  argu- 
ments placed  in  their  mouths.     Especially  in  the  South 
and  West  did  this  prevail.     Tlie  days    of  Christianity 
were   thought  to   be  numbered,  and  a  reign   of  "  Rea- 
son"   was  at  hand.     Like   the  Ingersollism  of  a  later 
date,    it   was    welcomed    by    the    half    educated,    who 
wished  the   freedom    from    moral    restraints    which    it 

1  Trumbull:     "  M'Fiiigal,'"  now  only  reniembered  by  its  surviving 

couplet,  — 

"  No  rogue  e'er  felt  the  lialter  draw, 
With  good  opinion  of  the  law." 

a  Hildreth :  History  of  the  U.S.,  vol.  ii.  p.  464. 


FROM   THE   OLD   TO   THE   NEW.  281 

carried  with  it.  When  Jefferson  was  chosen  President, 
it  seemed  to  have  triumphed  utterly.  Presidents  have 
been  elected  since  who  have  sat  loqsely  to  the  Christian 
faith,  but  not  before  or  since  Jefferson  who  have  been 
voted  for  on  that  ground.^ 

It  was  a  period  prolific  of  sects.  Specially  in  the 
West  and  South  a  brood  of  them  was  born.  The  sober 
Presbyterianism  which  the  Scotch-Irish  had  lately  car- 
ried into  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  was  overwhelmed  by 
the  wave  of  revivalism  which  reached  its  height  in  this 
period.^  Upon  its  ruins  arose  a  growth  of  extravagant 
churches,  so  called,  destined  afterward  to  fill  the  valley 
of  the  Ohio. 

What  could  the  newly  organized  Church  do  in  such 
an  age  ?  The  devastation  of  war,  the  fury  of  political 
Position  of  Strife,  the  revived  animosity  to  England  and 
the  Church,  r^j^  thiucrs  English,  the  craze  of  French  infi- 
delity,  the  unsettling  of  fixed  habits,  the  loosening 
of  creeds,  the  weakening  of  reverence,  all  wrought 
against  her  growth. 

By  the  happy  union  of  the  New  England  and  the 
Federal  ideas  in  the  ecclesiastical  constitution,  signed 
by  all  the  States  in  1789,  the  Church  had  escaped  the 
peril  of  permanent  schism,  not  to  say  of  anarchy. 
Upon  the  death  of  poor  Dr.  Griffith,  Virginia  chose 
Dr.  Madison,  who  went  to  England  for  consecration, 
and  thus  completed  the  English  line.  Both  lines  com- 
bined in  consecrating   Dr.   Claggett   Bishop   of  Mary- 

'  Centennial  Council,  Va.,  p.  139. 

1  Chase:  Reminiscences,  vol.  i.  p.  108. 

2  Roosevelt:  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  i.  p.  133. 
2  Hildreth:  History  of  the  U.S.,  vol.  ii.  p.  4G3. 


282  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

land.  South  Carolina,  wliicli  had  only  entered  the 
Federal  Cluirch  on  the  condition  that  no  bishop  should 
be  sent  to  her,  came  to  a  better  nnnd  three  years 
later,  and  elected  Dr.  Robert  Smith.  Massachusetts, 
the  Eastern  Diocese,  and  New  Jersey  followed.  To 
complete  the  organization  was  thenceforth  an  easy  task. 
The  real  problem  was  how  to  set  the  enginery  of  the 
Church  into  efficient  motion.  For  a  brief  period  it 
seemed  as  though  success  would  be  immediate.  Multi- 
tudes flocked  to  Confirmation.  Bishop  Seabury  con- 
Numbers  firmed  two  hundred  and  fifty  at  one  time  ^ 
confirmed.  .^t  Stratford,  and  nearly  twice  as  many  at 
Waterbury,  At  Bishop  Provoost's  first  Confirmation  at 
Trinity  Church,  over  three  hundred  presented  them- 
selves. They  included  children  of  fourteen,  and  totter- 
ing old  men  and  women,  who  went  from  the  chancel 
to  their  pews  muttering  their  Nunc  Dimittis.  Two 
venerable  ladies  were  led  up  by  their  colored  slaves, 
who  stood  humbly  by  until  the  rite  was  over.^  Bishop 
Madison,  at  his  first  and  only  visitation  to  the  tide-water 
section  of  his  State,  confirmed  six  hundred  in  five  par- 
ishes.^ But  when  the  novelty  of  the  rite,  now  for  the 
first  time  made  possible,  had  worn  away,  it  became 
very  generally  neglected.  Bishop  White  does  not  seem 
to  have  deemed  Confirmation  more  essential  for  the 
people  than  he  had  deemed  it  for  himself.  He  had 
never  been  confirmed  at  all.  He  rarely  made  visita- 
tions outside  of  Philadelphia  and  the  towns  close  by."* 

1  Beai-dsley:  History  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut,  vol.  i.  p.  430. 
^  Norton:  Life  of  Bishop  Provoost,  p.  132. 

3  Centennial  Council,  Va.,  p.  140. 

4  Rev.  Dr.  J.  H.  Hopkins,  in  The  Churchman,  April  22,  1884. 


FROM   THE   OLD   TO  THE  NEW.  283 

He  never  crossed  the  mountains  but  once.     The  many 
Church  people  who  had  made  their  homes  in  Western 
Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and   Eastern    Kentucky    were 
entirely  neg-lected.i     A  convocation  of  clergy  assembled 
in   1801    at  Washington,  Pa.,  coming  from    these    dis- 
siackad-        t"cts,  wrote   to   Bishop  White,   asking  that 
ministration,    something    might   be    done    to    organize   tlie 
Church  in  the  West,  but,  after  waiting  eighteen  months 
for  an  answer,  were  told  that  nothing  could  be  done. 
Bishop  White  does  not  give  any  account  at  all  of  his 
Episcopal  work  until  1809.     During  the  twenty  years 
which  succeed,  his  visitations  averaged  only  six  par- 
ishes per  annum.     In  the  twelve  parishes  beyond  the 
Alleghanies,  Confirmation  was  never  seen  but  once  in 
his  long  Episcopate.     Indeed  he  protests  in  set  terms 
against    "  the  supposition  in  the  minds  of    many,  that 
a'' bishop   shoidd   always    be    engaged  in  visitations."  ^ 
He  declares    that   it  is    contrary  to  the    usage    of  dio- 
cesan bishops  in  all  ages ;   that  a  bishop's  time  is  "  as 
much  due  to  his  own  family  as  are  any  of  his  services  to 
the  Church ;  "  that  it  is  inconsistent  with  a  learned  Epis- 
copacy ;  that  it  would  be  oppressive  upon  an  aged  and 
infirni  bishop.    The  bishops  were  all  rectors  of  parishes,^ 
and   regarded    the   work  of   their  Episcopal    office  but 
little,    except     in    the   single    function    of     ordination. 
Bishop  Madison,  after  his  first  visitation,  paid  no  further 
attention  to  his  diocese,  but  occupied  himself  entirely 

1  Rev.  Dr.  J.  H.  Hopkins,  in  The  Churchman,  April  22,  1884. 

2  WHiite:   Memoirs,  p.  467. 

3  Virginia,  from  fear  that  the  bishop  might  come  to  be  considered  dit- 
ferent  from  the  other  clergy,  passed  a  canon  compelling  Inm  to  be  rector 
of  a  parish. 

'•i  Hawks:   Contributions,  vol.  Va.,  p.  214. 


284  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

with  his  duties  as  President  of  William  and  Mary  Col- 
lege.^ The  first  Bishop  of  South  Carolina  never  con- 
firmed at  all.2  After  his  death,  no  successor  was  chosen 
for  eleven  years.  Bishop  Provoost  resigned  in  1801, 
and  busied  himself  with  making  a  new  translation  of 
Tasso,  and  the  study  of  botany.^  During  this  time  he 
entirely  neglected  the  services  of  the  Church  and  the 
Holy  Communion.*  The  convention  of  his  diocese  met 
irregularly.  During  three  successive  years  it  did  not 
meet  at  all.'^  The  coadjutor,  Bishop  Moore,  proceeded  in 
the  same  easy  fashion,  commending  the  Church,  however, 
as  Provoost  did  not,  by  his  own  gentle  piety.  In  1811 
he  was  stricken  with  paral^'sis.  Dr.  Hobart  was  there- 
upon chosen  the  third  Bishop  of  New  York,  all  three 
Troubles  in  ^^  wliom  were  living  at  the  same  time.  The 
New  York.  situation  caused  great  searchings  of  heart. 
The  interest,  however,  did  not  revolve  about  the  prob- 
lem of  the  Church's  progress,  but  of  her  internal  ar- 
rangement. We  first  catch  a  glimpse  here  of  the  party 
spirit  destined  later  to  convulse  the  Church,  and  see  an 
exhibition  of  that  pettiness  which  has  always  been  her 
besetting  sin.  The  "  Low  Churchmen  "  were  bitterly 
opposed  to  Dr.  Hobart's  election.  Bishop  Provoost,  to 
the  general  amazement,  laid  down  his  lexicons,  closed 
his  herbariums,  and  came  out  to  head  the  opposition. 
He  declared  that  his  resignation  ten  years  earlier  had 
not  been  irrevocable.     He  proposed  now  to  assume  the 

1  Norton:  Life  of  Bishop  Provoost,  p.  174. 

2  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  189,  note. 

3  Sprague:  Annals,  vol.  v.  p.  244. 
*  Perry:  History,  vol.  i.  p.  liX). 

s  Norton :  Life  of  Bisbop  Provoost,  p.  168, 


FROM   THE   OLD   TO   THE   NEW.  285 

administration  himself,  and  would  not  require  the  serv- 
ices of   the   bishop-elect.     His  contention  was  so  pre- 
posterous that  the  House  of  Bishops  would  not  hear  of 
it,  and  even  his   own   convention  would  not  allow  it. 
Dr.  Hobart  must  be  consecrated.     But  when   the  day- 
fixed  for  the  ceremony  arrived,  the  deplorable  weakness 
of  the  Church  appeared.     There  were  six  bishops  in  the 
United    States.     Three    were    n^xessary    to   consecrate 
another.     Bishop  Provoost  was  broken  in  health,  and 
his  naturally  infirm  temper  was  weakened  by  the  trans- 
action of  which  this   ceremony  formed  the  conclusion. 
It  was   very  doubtful  if  he  either  coukl  or  would  be 
present.     Bishop  Madison  of  Virginia  was  so  indifferent 
to  the  whole  affair  that  he  did  not  think  of  leaving  his 
college  duties  for  such  a  purpose.     Bishop  Claggett  of 
Maryland  was  taken  ill  on  his  way  North,  and  obliged 
to  turn  back.     Only  Bishops  White  of   Pennsylvania 
and  Jarvis  of  Connecticut  were  available.     It  looked  as 
though  another  journey  must  be  made  to  England  for 
consecration.    That  would  indeed  have  been  easier  than 
to  secure  the  attendance  of  three  American  bishops  at 
one  time  and  place.    Finally  Bishop  Provoost  consented 
to  join  in  the  consecration  if  his  health  would  allow  him 
to  go  to  the  church.     The  other  bishops  then  agreed 
that  if  he  should  be  unable,  the  service  might  be  held 
in  his  bed-chamber.     Fortunately  he  found  the  strengtli 
and  the  will  to  attend   at  Trinity  Church.     But  upon 
The  question    ^^^  ai'i'ival  a  great  difficulty  arose.     He  had 
of  wigs.  adorned  his  head  with  a  wig,  and  the  other 

bishops   wore    only    their   hair.      It   was  solemnly   dis- 
cussed whether  or  not  so  important  a  function  could  be 


286  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

performed  wigless.^     Dr.  Duche  offered  to  lend  Hishop 

White  his  for  the  occasion.     But  Bishop  Jarvis,  in  that 

case,  would    be  singular.     Bishop   White   adduced  the 

high  example  of  Archbishop  Tillotson,  whose  portrait 

shows   him   wigless.      This    illustrious   precedent  was 

deemed  satisfactory  for  the  two,  while  Bishop  Provoost 

should  uphold  ancient  usage  in  his  Episcopal  headdress. 

The    question    being    settled,    the    services    proceeded, 

and    the    three    surviving  men    of    the    old    order    laid 

their  hands  upon  Bishop  Hobart,  the   first  of  modern 

Churchmen 

Throuofhout  the  South  and  the  frontier  the  condition 

of  things  was  no  better.     Between  Virginia  and  South 

Carolina   lav    a    broad    belt    of    settlements 
State  of 
things  in  the    where   parishes    had   once   been,  and   where 

many  Church  families  were  scattered  yet. 
Among  the  population  wliich  was  pouring  over  the 
Cumberland  Mountains  into  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
there  were  hundreds  of  Episcopalians  from  Maryland 
and  Virginia.  These  were  all  as  sheep  without  a  shep- 
herd, and  were,  for  the  most  part,  lost  finally  to  the 
Church.^  In  the  two  old  States  where  the  Church  had 
been  established,  destruction  was  abroad.  The  loss  of 
the  State  support,  upon  which  they  had  become  accus- 
tomed to  lean,  left  them  broken  in  fortune  and  in  spirit. 
In  Maryland,  party  strife  added  the  last  touch  to  the 
dark  picture.  When  Bishop  Claggett  grew  nifirm,  and 
Dr.  Kemp  was  chosen  for  his  assistant,  a  secession  took 
place,  under  the  lead  of  Rev.  Daniel  Dashiell,  of  Balti- 

I  Norton :  Life  of  Bishop  Provoost,  p.  17(i. 
'  Id. :  Life  of  Bisliop  Claggett,  p.  110. 


FROM   THE   OLD   TO   THE   NEW.  287 

more,  and  an  '^  Evangelical  Episcopal  Church  "  set  up.^ 
The  abortive  schism  never  effected  more  than  to  harass 
the  already  wearied  Church.  The  dawn  of  a  better  day 
was  even  then  visible. 

But   it   was   in    old    Virginia  where    the  gloom  was 

deepest.     The  Church  had  been  in  control  there  for  two 

centuries,    until    within   a   generation.     But 

Low  estate        ^  ■>  o 

in  Virginia,  that  generation  had  turned  away  from  her  in 
indifference  or  in  anger.  During  the  war,  her  laymen, 
the  Washingtons,  Henrys,  Lees,  Pendletons,  had  taken 
the  patriotic  side,  while  the  clergy  had  clung  to  Eng- 
land and  to  their  glebes.  When  the  new  order  of 
things  came  in,  the  Church's  power  was  foredoomed. 
In  the  judgment  of  the  people  it  had  been  misused,  and 
they  meant  to  take  it  away  entirely.  The  laymen  stood 
by  impassive,  or  joined  in  the  spoliation.  In  1802  the 
blow  fell,  and  tl>e  Church's  property  was  swept  away  at 
a  stroke.  Glebes  and  churches  were  sold  for  a  song.^ 
The  proceeds,  whicli,  it  had  been  enacted  by  the  Legis- 
lature, should  be  ''used  for  any  public  purpose  not 
relio-ious,"  were  embezzled  by  the  sheriff's  officers. 
Guzzling  planters  toped  from  stolen  chalices  and  passed 
the  cheese  about  in  patens.  A  marble  font  became  a 
horse-trough.  Communion  plate,  the  gift  of  the  good 
Queen  Anne,  adorned  the  sideboards  of  officers  of  State 
and  country  gentlemen.  The  clergy  in  laige  numbers 
laid  down  their  spiritual  callings.  At  the  outbreak  of 
Ihe  war  they  had  numbered  ninety.     At  its  close,  only 

'  Hawks:  Contributions,  vol., Md.,  p.  422. 

2  lb.,  vol.  Va.,  p.  224e<seg. 

2  Centennial  Council,  Virginia,  p.  70, 


288  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

twenty-eight  could  be  counted.  After  the  spoliation 
they  lost  all  heart.  No  convention  was  held  from  1806 
to  1812.  Then  only  thirteen  could  be  assembled.  When 
they  adjourned  it  was  with  no  expectation  of  ever  meet- 
ing again.i  u  They  fear,"  said  the  House  of  Deputies  to 
the  Bishop,  "the  Church  in  Virginia  is  so  depressed  that 
there  is  danger  of  her  utter  ruin."  The  people  had 
already  gone  from  her.  The  Rev.  Devereux  Jarratt 
declares  that  before  the  Revolution  he  had  often  nine 
hundred  or  a  thousand  communicants ;  now,  since  the 
Methodists  have  done  their  work,  he  can  scarcely  find 
forty  hearers. 

When  William  Meade  was  ordained  deacon  at  Wil- 
liamsburg, in  1811,  two  ladies  and  fifteen  gentlemen, 
Meade  or-  most  of  them  his  relatives,  formed  the  con- 
dained.  gregation.     The    citizens    were    filling   their 

ice-houses,  and  the  students,  with  their  dogs  and  guns, 
had  gone  hunting.  The  church  was  dilapidated  and 
the  windov.'s  broken.  There  were  grave  suspicions  that 
the  Bishop  himself  had  renounced  the  Christian  faith.^ 
The  literary  society  of  the  college  had  lately  discussed : 
First,  Whether  there  be  a  God?  Secondly,  Whether 
the  Christian  religion  had  been  injurious  or  beneficial 
to  mankind  ?  Infidelity  was  then  rife  in  the  State,  and 
the  College  of  William  and  Mary  was  regarded  as  the 
hotbed  of  French  politics  and  religion.  "  I  can  truly 
sa}^,"  says  Bishop  Meade,  "  that  then,  and  for  some 
years  after,  in  every  educated  young  man  whom  I  met, 
I  expected  to  find  a  sceptic,  if  not  an  unbeliever."     No 

1  Centennial  Council,  Virginia,  p.  143. 

2  Meade:  Old  Churches,  vol.  i.  pp.  29-30. 


FROM   THE   OLD   TO   THE   NEW.  289 

minister  had  been  ordained  for  years  save  one  unworthy 
fellow,  and  it  was  a  passing  wonder  to  the  people  that  a 
young  man  of  good  family,  an  educated  man,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Princeton,  should  enter  the  ministry  of  the 
Episcopal  Church !  ^ 

In  Connecticut,  indeed  throughout  New  England,  the 
Church   maintained   its   own,  but  made  scant  progress. 

Bishop  Seabury  took  his  office  seriously.     He 
The  Church  ^  ,      ■'  i      i      i 

in  New  was  strong  in  the  thnig,  but  lacked  grace  in 

Engian  .  ^^^^  manner.  "  I,  Samuel,  by  Divine  permis- 
sion Bishop  of  Connecticut,  .  .  .  issue  this  irijunction, 
hereby  authorizing  and  requiring  you,  and  every  one  of 
you,  the  Presbyters  and  Deacons  of  the  Church  above 
mentioned,  to  make  the  following  alterations  in  the 
Liturgy  and  Offices  of  the  Church."  ^  This  was  his 
style  toward  those  who  recognized  his  authority.  In  an 
"Address  to  Ministers  and  Congregations  of  the  Pres- 
byterian and  Independent  persuasions  in  the  United 
States  of  America,"  he  charges  them  to  return  to  the 

fold.     This   could    only  be  done   by  "  relin- 
Bishop  Sea-  .  i  •   i        i  i  i 

bury's  quisliiug   those    errors    which    they,  througli 

manner.  prejudice,  had  imbibed."    This  sort  of  treacle 

catches    few   flies.     On   the    other  hand,  his  clear  and 

emphatic  presentation  of  the  position  of  the  Church  had 

its  effect  upon  a  people  who  have  always  been  moved 

by  argument  rather  than  by  feeling.     But  even  in  New 

England  a  new  hostility  had  arisen.     The  old  charge  of 

lack  of  spiritual  earnestness  had  been  revived.^     A  con- 

1  Perry:   History,  vol.  ii.  p.  113. 

2  Beardsley :   Life  of  Seabury,  p.  38G. 

3  Cliaracter  and  Principles  of  the  Protestant  Epi.scopal  Church  Vin- 
dicated: New  Haven,  ISltJ. 


290  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

certed  attempt,  in  which  the  Puritan  clergy  joined,  to 
damage  her  prospects  and  reputation,  had  been  system- 
atically undertaken.^ 

It  seems  unfortunate  that  it  should  have  fallen  to  the 
bishops  of  this  period  to  meet  and  pass  upon  one  of  the 
Dr  Coke's  most  momentous  questions  which  have  ever 
proposition,  been  brousfht  before  that  house.  This  was  a 
proposition  from  Dr.  Coke,  the  first  of  the  Methodist 
superintendents.  He  had  been  set  apart  by  Wesley  in 
1784,  and  had  himself  commissioned  Mr.  Asbury  in 
America  to  complete  the  organization  of  that  numer- 
ous body,  then  members  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 
After  some  years  of  work  and  experience.  Coke,  still 
a  clergyman  of  the  Church,  wrote  to  the  new-made 
Bishops  Seabury  and  White,  offering  a  plan  of  reunion. 
He  proposed  that  he  and  Mr.  Asbury  should  be  conse- 
crated "  as  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Society  in  the 
United  States  (or  by  any  other  title,  if  that  be  not 
proper),  on  the  supposition  of  the  union  of  the  two 
churches,  under  proper  mutual  stipulation."  Bishop 
Seabury  never  answered  his  letter  at  all.^  Bishop  White 
replied  in  his  usual  courteous  style.  Bishop  Madison 
of  Virginia,  who  knew  better  than  any  of  the  others 
who  and  what  the  Methodists  were,  and  what  their 
needs  were,  was  anxious  that  the  matter  should  be 
accomplished,  but  the  other  bishops  were  untouched. 
Bishop  Seal)ury  did  not  want  it,  and  Bishop  White  did 
not  believe    it    possible.-^     They  dismissed    the    project 

1  Letter  from  a  Churchman  to  his  Friend  in  New  Haven,  1808.- 

2  Beardsley:  Life  of  Seabury,  p.  40L 

3  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  120. 


FROM   THE   OLD   TO   THE   NEW.  291 

with  a  general  declaration  that  the  Church  was  always 
desirous  of  unity,  was  ready  to  alter  or  modify  any  thing- 
save  essentials  to  this  end,  and  recommended  to  the  sev- 
eral States  to  propose  such  conferences  with  Christians 
of  other  denominations  as  they  might  think  most  prudent. 
At  first  sight  it  would  seem  as  though  the  Church 
had  lost  the   opportunity  of  the  century  through  the 

incapacity  of  the  old  bishops  to  comprehend 
gone  beyond    the    new  condition  of  things.      Could  they 

have  foreseen  the  mighty  ecclesiastical  em- 
pire to  which  American  Methodism  was  destined  to 
grow,  they  would  doubtless  have  laid  aside  all  else, 
and  striven  to  avert  its  final  separation  from  its  mother. 
The  severance  has  been  fruitful  of  evil  to  both  mother 
and  child.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  they  could  have  suc- 
ceeded. It  was  even  then  too  late.  Had  the  Bishop 
of  London  hearkened  to  Wesley's  earnest  prayer  a  dozen 
years  before,  and  ordained  men  to  look  after  the  thou- 
sands of  Methodists  who  were  then  members  of  the 
Bishop's  own  flock,  the  division  would  probably  have 
been  averted.  But  he  had  refused,  and  the  mischief 
was  done.  Wesley's  action  in  sending  out  superintend- 
ents had  been  well  and  wisely  done.  It  was  the  action 
of  a  High  Churchman  ^  and  an  earnest  man.  There  was 
no  bishop  here  then,  and,  so  far  as  men  could  see,  no 
likelihood  of  any.  Meanwhile  ''  the  hungry  sheep  looked 
up  and  were  not  fed."  That  the  superintendents  should 
take  upon  themselves  the  office  of  bishop,  whether  they 
assumed  its  title  or  not,  was  inevitable.  No  chagrin  of 
Wesley  could  change  the  course  of  events.     He  had, 

1  Stevens:  History  of  Methodism,  Appendix. 


292  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

with  an  honest  purpose,  built  an  engine  which  he  could 
not  control ;  but  the  first  American  bishops  were  not  the 
men  to  either  control  or  direct  it.  Their  great  work 
was  done.  It  had  been  to  organize  American  Episco- 
pacy. That  they  had  done  well  and  wisely.  To  bring 
it  into  right  relation  with  the  other  component  parts 
of  American  Christianity  was  to  be  the  duty  of  their 
descendants  a  century  later. 

As  the  chaotic  period  now  before  us  draws  to  its  end, 
signs  of  new  vigor  in  the  Church  begin  to  appear.  A 
Dawning  of  a  generation  of  men  born  and  reared  under  the 
better  day.  j^g^^  order  are  now  coming  upon  the  stage. 
The  field  is  being  prepared  by  a  hundred  unthought-of 
agencies.  The  unpopular  war  with  England  in  1812 
has  ended,  and  a  better  understanding  exists  than  did 
when  it  began.  Churchmen  had  fought  on  the  Ameri- 
can side,  and  had  won  their  comrades'  good-will.  Napo- 
leon's duplicity  has  disgusted  the  people  with  the  French 
influence.  The  Cumberland  Road  has  been  built  from 
the  Potomac  to  the  Ohio  and  beyond.  Canals  have 
been  opened  up  to  carry  emigrants  and  goods.  The 
vast  region  east  of  the  Mississippi  has  been  purchased. 
Wayne  has  broken  and  scattered  the  Indians.  Settlers' 
cabins  have  begun  to  dot  the  prairies.  Lewis  and  Clark 
have  toiled  up  the  Missouri,  and  paddled  down  the 
Columbia.  Fulton's  new  steamboat  has  carried  wonder- 
ing passengers  up  the  Hudson,  and  its  sister  craft  has 
been  built  on  the  Ohio.  Manufactories  have  crossed 
the  Alleghanies.  The  cotton  gin  has  started  new  life 
in  the  South.  A  highway  has  been  cast  up.  The  old 
life  has  gone.     The  modern  America  has  come. 


PHILANDER  CIIAf^E 
First  r>ishi)p  of  Ohii>.  and  afterward  of  Illinois 


FROM   THE   OLD   TO   THE   NEW.  293 

With  it  have  come  new  men.  Bishop  Hobart  is  im- 
pressing the  true  spirit  of  the  American  Church  upon 
New  men  at  New  York  and  Connecticut.  Meade  is  gath- 
work.  ering  up  the  scattered  and  broken  forces  in 

Virginia.  Empie  and  Judd  are  laying  foundations  in 
North  Carolina.  The  sagacious  Parker  is  adjusting  the 
Church  to  the  new  life  in  Massachusetts.  The  outlying 
provinces  to  the  northward  have  been  gathered  into  the 
Eastern  Diocese,  and  Bishop  Griswold  is  doing  apos- 
tolic work  there.  That  adventurous  missionary  and 
builder,  Philander  Chase,  has  organized  a  congregation 
at  New  .Orleans,  and  has  come  home  to  prepare  for  his 
strange  career  in  the  Ohio  valley.  An  Episcopal  Acad- 
emy has  been  founded  in  Philadelphia,  and  another  in 
Connecticut.  The  Virginia  Churchmen  are  moving  to 
establish  a  theological  seminary. ^  The  ''Advancement 
Society  "  is  beginning  its  work  among  the  frontiersmen. 
A  similar  society  in  New  York  is  sustaining  a  mission 
among  the  Oneidas  and  Mohawks.  Bishop  Hobart 
confirms  eighty-nine  Indians  at  one  visitation,  and 
ninety-seven  at  another.''^  His  scheme  for  a  theological 
seminary  at  New  York  is  about  to  be  realized  through 
the  generous  gift  of  a  layman,  Jacob  Sherred.  Tract 
societies,  Bible  societies,  Prayer-Book  societies,  have 
Representa-  ^^^u  founded,  and  a  Church  newspaper  is 
tivemen.  started.^  Dr.  Hobart  puts  forth  his  "Com- 
panion for  the  Altar,"  and  defends  Church  order  in  the 
Albany  Centinel  against  the  Dutch  Reformed  Dr.  Linn 

1  Centennial  Council,  Va.,  p.  79. 

2  Norton:  Life  of  Bishop  Hobart,  pp.  56,  83. 

3  lb.,  p.  43. 


294  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

and  the  Presbyterian  Samuel  Miller.  In  his  "  Apology 
for  Apostolic  Order"  he  gained  an  honorable  place  for 
the  theory  of  Episcopacy  in  the  controversial  world. 
Churchmen  were  coming  to  the  front  in  American  liter- 
ature, as  they  had  a  generation  before  in  statesmanship, 
and  as  they  were  even  now  in  law.  Chief  Justice  Mar- 
shall and  Chancellor  Kent  stood  foremost  in  their  pro- 
fession. Gulian  C.  Verplanck,  Irving,  Cooper,  and 
Richard  Henry  Dana  brought  a  new  and  broader  life 
to  American  letters. 

The  Bishops  of  the  new  regime  make  diligent  and 
regular  visitations.  In  some  States  an  Episcopal  Fund 
has  been  begun,  and  the  Bishop  is,  in  part  at  least,  set 
free  from  the  engrossing  cares  of  a  parish.  The  multi- 
farious machineries  for  parochial  work  are  not  yet 
thought  of.     The    Sunday-school   is  seen  in 

Beginning  of  *"  '  .  .      . 

Sunday-  the    proccss    01  its    evolution.     As  yet  it  is 

upon  trial,  and  is  more  a  secular  than  a  relig- 
ious device.  In  an  Anniversary  Address  in  1817,^ 
Bishop  Hobart  offers  a  lengthy  defence  of  the  plan  to 
teach  a  modicum  of  Church  doctrine,  as  distinguished 
from  the  "  non-sectarian  "  instruction  then  in  use.  The 
report  of  the  society  before  which  he  speaks  shows  that 
up  to  that  time  there  had  been  published  for  the 
Sunday-schools  in  the  city  8,000  alphabet  cards  ;  2,000 
spelling-books  ;  7-iO  primers ;  167  Prayer-books  ;  that 
several  women  over  sixty  had  learned  to  spell  quite 
well ;  that  twelve  classes  of  colored  children  had 
learned  to  read  in  words  of  one  syllable  ;  that,  in  the 
February  before,  Grace  Church  had  started  a  school  in 

1  Anniversary  of  the  New  York  Sunday-school  Society,  1818. 


FROM   THE   OLD   TO   THE   NEW.  295 

which  fourteen  gentlemen  had  come  forward  as  teach- 
ers, and  they  had  opened  with  twenty  scholars  ;  that 
the  society  hopes  soon  to  issue  2,000  Scripture  Lessons, 
being  Bishop  Gastrell's  "  Christian  Institutes,  a  Com- 
pleat  System  of  the  Doctrines  and  Precepts  of  the 
Gospel,  in  a  Connected  Series  of  Scripture  Texts  ;  " 
that  they  have  collected  eight  hundred  dollars,  of  which 
two  hundred  dollars  has  been  paid  as  salaries  to  super- 
intendents, and  for  desks,  while  the  balance  is  on  hand  ; 
that  they  venture  to  think  the  success  for  the  year  a 
convincing  argument  in  favor  of  the  new  institution.^ 

The    General  Convention   Journal  for  1820  gives  a 
comprehensive  view  of  the  state  of  the  Church.     It  re- 
ports that  in  Maine,  "  where  fen-  many  years 
State  of  the  .         ,,  .        , 

Church  in       it  was  depressed  and  almost  extinct,    it  "  has 

now  assumed  a  flourishing  aspect ;  "  that  in 
New  Hampshire  there  are  nine  churches  ;  in  Massacliu- 
setts  it  is  flourishing,  the  Canons  and  Rubrics  are  gen- 
erally observed,  a  large  and  elegant  new  churcli  is 
nearly  completed  in  Boston,  and  "  a  few  small  congre- 
gations have  been  collected  in  other  towns  ; "  in  Ver- 
mont three  new  churches  have  been  built,  some  new 
congregations  have  been  gathered,  and  a  suit  has  been 
entered  to  secure  the  demesnes  ;  the  Church  in  Rhode 
Island  is  flourishing,  and  "  there  is  a  decided  and  in- 
creasing attachment  to  the  peculiarities  of  our  Com- 
munion ; "  "  in  Connecticut  no  material  change  has 
taken  place  ; "  in  New  York  the  growth  has  been  phe- 
nomenal, —  twenty -four  priests  ordained  and  fourteen 
deacons,  and  thirty-six  clergy  have  undertaken  work  in 

1  New  York  Sunday-school  Society,  Report  for  1818. 


296  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUP.CH. 

the  State  within  the  hist  three  years ;  in  New  Jersey  the 
"  Church  continues  sh)wly  to  improve,"  eight  Con- 
firmations have  been  held  in  the  hist  three  years  ;  in 
Pennsylvania  it  ''  is  increasing  as  rapidly  as,  when  all 
circumstances  are  considered,  we  have  any  reason  to 
expect ; "  in  Delaware  "  the  state  of  affairs  is  certainly 
improving  ;  "  in  Maryland  is  every  sign  of  a  new  life, 
and  it  is  recorded  as  noteworthy  that  the  Bishop  lias 
visited  nearly  every  church  within  the  last  three  years  ; 
in  Virginia  the  improvement  has  been  greater  still, 
there  are  now  fifty  clergy,  and  "  the  conduct  of  the 
communicants  is  more  consistent ;  "  in  North  Carolina 
the  communicants  have  grown  from  fifty  to  more  than 
three  hundred;  in  South  Carolina  there  are  signs  of  a 
new  life  ;  from  the  remote  region  of  Ohio  little  informa- 
tion has  come,  but  several  congregations  are  known  to 
have  been  gathered,  one  at  Dayton  and  one  at  Miami, 
at  the  least.^ 

1  Gen.  Con.  Journal,  1820. 


WAITING   FOR  VOLUNTEEKS.  297 


CHAPTER   VII. 

WAITING    FOR   VOLUNTEERS. 

"  The  Report  of  the  Committee  on  the  State  of  the 
Church  "  for  1820  shows  that  it  was  then  organized  in 
all  the  original  States.  There  were  not  yet  bishops  in 
all,  but  the  scattered  congregations  in  each  had  drawn 
together.  In  one  instance,  several  separate  States  had 
confederated  into  a  temporary  diocese,  with  the  expec- 
tation that  some  time  the  federation  would  be  loosed 
by  mutual  action,  and  each  independent  unit  of  it 
would  set  up  for  itself.  The  idea  of  propagandism  was 
but  faintly,  if  at  all,  present  in  the  mind  of  the  Church. 
The  State  idea  still  controlled.^  The  functions  of  the 
national  body  were  conceived  to  be  discharged  when  it 
had  provided  and  set  forth  the  terms  and  conditions 
upon   which  any  new  State  might  come  in. 

The  Ns-tionsil 

Church  in-  When  any  should  be  ready  it  would  volun- 
**^*^^®'  teer  to  come.     Each  was  thought  of  as  an  in- 

dependent ecclesiastical  empire.  That  had  been  the  un- 
derlying principle  of  the  original  federation.  The  idea  of 
the  central  organism  going  forth  to  plant  new  soil,  culti- 
vate the  tender  shoots,  and  gather  the  harvest  into  the 
common  garner,  had  hardly  begun  to  be  entertained.  It 
was  true  that  the  Church's  conscience  had  been  dumbly 
uneasy  in  presence  of  the  situation  for  a  long  time,  but 

1  White:  Memoirs,  pp.  464-407. 


298  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

no  way  to  correct  it  was  evident.  For  more  than  a  gen- 
eration there  had  been  Church  families  "  over  the  mount- 
ains," ministered  to  fitfully  by  itinerant  priests,  and 
often  crying  out  for  succor.  But  with  the  theory  which 
the  Church  had  accepted  about  her  own  relation  to  the 
States,  she  was  impotent.^  She  must  wait  until  the  feeble 
folk  in  any  political  division  should  grow  strong  enough, 
draw  together  of  their  own  motion,  organize  themselves 
into  a  State  Church,  choose  a  bishop,  and  ask  for  admis- 
sion. Meanwhile  they  must  be  left  to  themselves,  not  un- 
pitied,  but  unaided.  The  Rev.  Joseph  Doddridge,  who 
itinerated  in  Western  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  in 
1811,  says  ^  that  large  portions  of  that  great  region, 
Pioneer  including  Kentucky  and  Eastern  Ohio,  had 

Churchmen,  been  settled  originally  by  Church  people 
from  Maryland,  Carolina,  and  Virginia.  When  they 
crossed  the  mountains  they  left  their  Church  be- 
hind them.  In  their  old  homes  they  had  enjoyed  its 
privileges,  as  they  had  those  of  sun  and  soil,  without 
much  thought  or  appreciation.  Bnt  now  that  it  was 
lacking,  they  missed  it  sadly.  They  could  not  fall  in 
with  the  crude  religionism  which  prevailed  in  the  back- 
woods. Their  children  were  either  becoming  indiffer- 
ent, or  being  carried  away  by  the  rude  excitements  of 
Methodism.  The  indefatigable  "  circuit-rider,"  with 
Wesley's  tracts  stuffing  his  saddle-bags,  was  I'iding 
from  week's  end  to  week's  end  under  the  shadow  of  the 
ancient  forests,  stopping  at  ever}^  clearing  to  leave  a 
tract  and  a  word  of  exhortation ;  frequenting  the  "  log- 

1  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  240. 

2  lb.,  p.  238. 


WAITING   FOR   VOLUNTEERS.  299 

rollings,"  "house-raisings,"  "huskings,"  and  "scutch- 

ing-frolics,"  seeking  a  chance    to    preach;    unmindful 

of   heat   or  cold,   swollen   rivers   or  gloomy 

Methodists  .   . 

andPresby-  swamps,  of  ribald  jests  or  coarse  opposition, 
the'back"  sustained  by  the  fire  of  a  glowing  enthusiasm 
^°°'^'-  to  "  save  souls  from  Hell-fire."  i     The  Pres- 

byterians were  building  their  log-churches  and  cabin 
schoolhouses,  organizing  Presbyteries,  and  fixing  the 
religious  life  of  the  region  for  three  generations  to 
come.2  Tlie  ( niuichman  was  left  to  one  side,  unheeded. 
The  Methodist  pronounced  him  destitute  of  "vital 
piety ; "  the  Presbyterian  called  him  a  superstitious 
moralist ;  his  own  National  Church  left  him  to  live  or 
die  as  might  be.  The  half-dozen  clergy  wandering 
through  this  widespread  region  of  poverty  and  religious 
confusion  met  together  and  begged  the  Church  to  come 
and  look  after  her  children.  But  they  begged  in  vain. 
Doddridge  declares  that  he  had  no  expectation  of  even 
being  buried  as  a  Churchman  when  he  should  die.  He 
affirms,  in  a  letter  to  Bishop  Hobart  in  1816,  that  if  the 
Church  had  used  her  opportunity,  there  might  then  have 
been  "  four  or  five  bishops  in  this  country,  surrounded 
by  a  numerous  and  respectable  body  of  clergy,  instead 
of  having  our  very  name  connected  with  a  fallen 
Church."  3    • 

These  facts  had  been  before  the  Church,  and  had  dis- 
turbed its  conscience  and  heart  as  early  as  1792.     Then 

1  Eggleston:  The  Circuit  Rider. 
'  Tlie  Hoosier  Schoolmaster. 

2  Smith:  Old  Redstone. 

2  lb. :  History  of  Western  Pennsylvania. 

3  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  26. 


800  THE   PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

the  Convention  had  passed  a  resolution  urging  each 
parish  to  take  an  annual  collection  for  the  help  of 
the  Church  people  in  the  western  country, 
thought  of  and  had  appointed  the  Bishop  and  Standing 
missioQs.  Committee  of  Pennsylvania  a  committee  to 
administer  the  fund,  and  to  send  missionaries  when  and 
Avhere  they  might  see  fit.^  So  little  came  of  it,  and  so 
little  was  expected  to  come  of  it,  that  Bishop  White,  in 
his  resume  of  the  Convention's  acts,  does  not  so  much  as 
allude  to  it.^  Sixteen  years  later  a  committee  of  three 
bishops,  three  clergy,  and  three  laymen  was  appointed 
to  consider  the  situation,  and  granted  the  power  to  send 
a  bishop  into  the  new  States  and  Territories,  if  they 
should  think  it  advisable.^  In  1811  the  conniiittee 
report  that  they  had  not  been  able  to  see  their  way  to 
take  any  action.  Bishop  White  suggests,  in  that  con- 
nection, that  if  a  bishop  should  be  appointed  in  that 
region,  he  would  hope  to  be  relieved  by  him  of  the  care 
of  his  own  parishes  which. lay  beyond  the  Alleghanies  ! 
It  would  not  be  fair  to  say  that  this  long  neglect  of 
the  regions  beyond  the  pale  was  wholly  the  result  of 
indifference,  or  to  say  that  nothing  was  done.  Some- 
thing was  effected,  but  at  an  infinite  cost  of  time  and 
opportunity.  Even  before  the  National  Church  became 
alive  to  its  corporate  responsibility,  and  before  the 
notion  of  State  autonomy  was  laid  aside,  three  new 
States  had  been  carved  out  of  the  national  domain,  and 
the    churches  within    them   had   organized    themselves 


1  Gen.  Con.  Journal,  1792. 

2  White:  Memoirs,  Convention  of  1792. 

3  Gen.  Con.  Journal,  1808. 


WAITING   FOR   VOLUNTEERS.  301 

and  come  into  the  federation.  These  were  Ohio,  Ken- 
tucky, and  Tennessee.  The  missionary  history  of  these 
is  to  be  found  by  following  the  lives  of  two  remarkable 

men. 

Two  streams  of  emigration  flowed  westward.  The 
first,  from  the  meagre  soil  of  New  England,  followed 

its   own  belt  of  latitude  and  settled  in  the 
Two  streams  „t-,t-,-  ^  ii-j.i- 

ofemigra-       basin  of  Lake  Erie,  and  upon  the  niterlacmg 

*'°°-  tributaries  of  the  Cuyahoga,  the  Muskingum, 

and  the  Maumee.  New  York  reabsorbed  her  own  emi- 
grants within  the  Mohawk  valley  and  her  own  broad 
lacustrine  domain.  The  second  and  fuller  tide  flowed 
from  the  old  Middle  colonies  into  the  Ohio  valley 
proper,  and  southwestward  toward  the  Gulf.  The  first 
of  these  carried  Philander  Chase ;  the  second,  James 
Harvey  Otey. 

Chase  was  of  pure  New  England,  Puritan  stock,  born 
on  the  bank  of  the  upper  Connecticut,  reared  liardly  in 
„.  ,  a  Vermont  farmhouse,  and  graduated  at  Dart- 

Bisoop  '^ 

Chase.  moutli  College.^     When  in  college  in  1794, 

he,  like  Dr.  Cutler  had  done  at  Yale,  seventy  years  ear- 
lier, found,  by  chance,  a  Prayer-Book.^  His  study  of 
it  brought  him  to  the  Church.  The  young  convert 
went  home,  upon  his  graduation,  and  convinced  his 
father's  house.  He  was  ordained,  and  became  at  once 
the  indomitable,  eager,  restless  missionary  and  front- 
iersman which  he  remained  until  his  life's  end.  Prob- 
ably no  man  in  the  American  Church  has  laid  so  many 
foundations.     He   tried  his  'prentice   hand  in  the  new 

1  Bishop  Cliase:  Reminiscences,  second  edition,  vol.  i.  p.  7. 

2  lb.,  vol.  i.  p.  KJ. 


302  THE   PIJOTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

settlement  on  Lake  George,  and  organized  a  parish 
there.^  Among  the  stumps  and  cabins  at  Utica  he  laid 
down  another  ;  another  in  the  presence  of  the  wonder- 
ing Indians  at  Canandaigua  ;  another  at  Paris  ;  another 
at  Auburn.  But  his  restless  spirit  soon  bore  him  farther 
afield.  He  returned  down  the  Hudson,  and  sailed  away 
In  New  ^^  ^^^®  far-off  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.     The 

Orleans.  u  Protestant  Church  "  of  New  Orleans  had 

already  a  loose  organization.  Chase  drew  its  bands 
closer,  persuaded  it  to  come  within  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church,  and  became  its  rector.^  His  tireless 
labor,  and  his  excursions  far  and  wide  tlu'ough  the 
swamps  and  bayous  to  the  outlying  settlements,  brought 
him  to  death's  door  with  a  fever,  from  which  he  was 
recovered  by  a  plentiful  exhibition  of  "  fixed  air."  ^ 
When  he  brought  his  shattered  body  North,  he  was  con- 
tent to  be  a  parish  priest  at  Hartford  only  until,  with 
returning  strength,  returned  his  "  Western  fever."  In 
1817  he  started  for  the  distant  "Western  Reserve." 
In  midwinter,  on  horseback,  and  in  a  shackly  pung,  he 
crossed  Coiniecticut  and  New  York,  bidding  God-speed 
to  the  churches  he  had  gathered  years  l^efore. 

Pioneer  mis- 

sionaryin  stopped  to  rest  at  the  half-dozen  cabins  of 
Buffalo,  intrusted  himself  and  his  horse  upon 
the  ice  of  Lake  Erie,  was  near  being  drowned  moi-e  than 
once  by  the  ice  breaking  through,  and  found  his  jour- 
ney's end  at  Salem,  Ohio.*  "  There  was  not  an  Episco- 
palian in  the  place."     Nothing  daunted,  when  Sunday 

1  Bishop  Chase:  Reminiscences,  vol.  ii.  p.  28. 

2  lb.,  vol  i.  p.  54. 

3  lb.,  vol.  i.  p.  its. 

4  lb.,  vol.  i  p.  127. 


WAITING   FOR   VOLUNTEERS.  303 

came,  he  announced  who  he  was  and  why  he  had  come, 
gathered  tlie  people  together,  read  prayers,  telling  the 
people  how  and  when  to  respond,  and  delivered  his 
message.  The  people  "  were  much  pleased  with  the 
prayers."  There  were  already  two  clergy  in  the  State, 
remote  from  him  and  from  each  other.  For  a  year  he 
went  about  from  hamlet  to  hamlet,  from  clearing  to 
clearing,  gathered  the  Church  people  of  whom  he 
heard  from  time  to  time,  established  new  posts,  put  him- 
self in  communication  Avitli  the  other  missionaries,  and 
in  1818,  five  clergy,  constituting  the  whole  force  in  the 
State,  together  with  lialf  a  dozen  laymen,  met,  organized 
a  diocese,  and  elected  Chase  bishop.  He  was  conse- 
crated in  Philadelphia,  February  11,  1819.  Then  he 
plodded  back  on  horseback,  nearly  freezing  b}'  the  way, 
through  York,  McConnellsburg,  Greensburg,  and  Pitts- 
burg to  Ohio,  and  began  his  life's  work  as  bishop  and 
backwoodsman.  The  frontiersmen  were  either  indiffer- 
ent or  hostile  to  the  Church.  Indeed,  Episcopalians 
formed  a  small  proportion  of  the  emigrants  to  the  West. 
In  the  previous  history  of  the  country,  the  Church,  as 
has  been  seen,  had  its  strength  mainly  among  the 
wealthy,  official,  aristocratic  classes.  These  did  not  go 
AVest.  It  was  the  farmers,  yeomanry,  and  mechanics 
who  sought  better  fortune  beyond  the  mountains. 
These  were,  for  the  most  part,  ignorant  of  the  Church's 
ways  and  spirit.  Few  men  have  ever  known  so  well  as 
The  frontier  l^i^hop  Chase  how  to  win  them.  Once  when 
bishop.  i^e  had  appointed  a  service  at  a  certain  time  at 

a  distant  place,  he  found,  upon  his  arrival,  that  tlie  hos- 
tile denominations  had  intentionally  fixed  a  "  Union  Pro- 


304  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

tracted  Meeting,"  at  the  same  time  and  place.  When 
he  came  in  it  was  in  full  blast.  Fortunately  he  found 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd  a  Presbyterian  gentleman, 
who  did  not  at  all  approve  of  the  tactics  which  liis 
minister  had  used  in  fixing  this  meeting.  By  him  tht» 
Bishop  sent,  courteously  asking  the  Presbyterian,  Con- 
gregational, and  Methodist  ministers  present  to  come  to 
him.  When  they  came,  sullen  and  pugnacious,  he  said, 
"  I  have  come  here  by  appointment  to  hold  a  service  ;  I 
beg  you  will  join  with  me  in  conducting  it  and  making 
it  profitable."  Without  waiting  for  a  reply,  he  marched 
to  the  platform,  with  them  at  his  heels,  and  announced: 
"  Neighbors,  I  hold  in  one  hand  a  Bible,  in  the  other  a 
Prayer-Book.  The  one  teaches  us  how  to  live,  the 
other  how  to  pray.  I  know  you  are  familiar  with  the 
one,  I  doubt  if  you  are  with  the  other.  I  have  brought 
some  dozens  of  copies  with  me.  With  the  aid  of  these, 
my  good  brethren,  I  will  try  to  lead  you  in  the  service. 
If  any  of  you,  through  the  depravity  of  the  natural 
heart,  are  averse  to  being  '  taught  how  to  pray,'  you 
need  the  teaching  all  the  more  on  that  very  account. 
Without  confession  there  is,  as  you  know,  no  remission 
of  sins.  We  will  therefore  confess  our  sins  to  Almighty 
God,  all  in  the  same  voice.  You  will  observe  that  no 
man  can  say  '  Our  Father '  until  he  has  confessed  his 
faults ;  we  will  now  say  'Our  Father  who  art  in 
heaven.'  The  proper  attitude  when  we  pray  is  upon 
our  knees,  as  did  Solomon,  Daniel,  Steplien,  and  Paul. 
After  their  example,  I  enjoin  upon  you  all  to  fall  upon 
your  knees."  And  so  the  service  proceeded,  "  the 
response  from  the  great  congregation  being  as  the  voice 
of  many  waters." 


WAITING   FOR   VOLUNTEERS.  305 

Did  any  good  result  from  it?  He  "-hopes  so  indeed; 
but  much  of  the  good  was  h3st  for  want  of  shepherds  to 
gather  in  the  hxnib.s.'"  ^  As  a  man  who  knew  his  people, 
lived  and  loved  their  life,  he  travelled  hither  and  thither, 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Church  in  Ohio.  The 
Kenyon  monument  to  his  name  is  Kenyon  College. 

College.  He  saw  very  early  that  the  Church,  to  be  suc- 

cessful among  the  people,  must  be  home-bred.  There 
was  no  place  or  way  to  train  up  a  ministry ;  he  would 
make  one.  AVhen  his  plan  was  mature,  he  took  the 
unheard-of  step  of  going  to  England  for  the  money 
needed.  No  such  bishop  had  been  seen  there  for  a 
thousand  years.  His  rugged  simplicity  awoke  atten- 
tion, and  he  became  the  rage.  With  the  friendship  of 
great  men  and  noble  ladies,  with  his  pockets  full  of 
money,  he  came  home  and  planted  his  seminary  and 
college.^  He  built  his  brain  and  heart  in  it.  But  with 
its  growth  and  success  came  a  conflict  between  himself 
and  his  subordinates  as  to  its  management.  Finally, 
after  what  seemed  to  him  an  unworthy  and  ungrateful 
thwarting  of  his  wishes  in  the  matter,  he  turned  his 
back  upon  the  noble  institution  which  stood  in  the 
broad  demesne  that  he  had  wrested  from  the  wilderness, 
mounted  his  horse,  and  rode  away  into  the  back-iyoods  of 
Michigan.  His  real  work  was  among  the  primitive 
frontiersmen.  But  in  Kenyon  College  and  Jubilee 
College  he  laid  foundations  upon  which  other  men 
ought  long  ago  to  have  built  strong  towers  for  educa- 
tion and  the  C-hurch.     They  were  earliest  on  the  ground. 

1  Reminiscences,  vol.  ii.p.  201. 
•    2  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  170. 


306  THE   PROTESTANT   EriSCOPAL    CHUPvCH. 

They  possessed  the  good-will  and  respect  of  the  i^eopld 
among  whom  they  were  planted.  But  they  have  been 
overshadowed  long  since  by  the  institutions  of  other 
faiths.  Bishop  Chase  had  done  his  work.  Tln-ough 
him  the  Church  in  Ohio  had  been  gathered,  and  re- 
ceived, not  without  questioning  and  hesitation,  into  the 
Federation  which  waited  yet  for  such  State  Churches 
as  might  volunteer  to  come. 

Kentucky  had  already  come.  Among  its  very  earliest 
settlers  had  been  a  clergyman  of  the  Church.  The  first 
Church  in  ^^  enter  its  borders  had  been  Episcopalians 
Kentucky.  from  Virginia.  But  they  were  early  overrun 
by  the  stream  of  Scotch-Irish  which  poured  over  the 
Blue  Ridge  after  the  Revolution.  These  carried  with 
them  the  antipathy  to  the  Church  which  tlieir  fathers 
had  brought  across  the  ocean  with  them.  It  had  not 
been  lessened  by  the  Revolution  and  the  Indian  wars. 
The  "Episcopal  Church"  was  linked  in  their  minds 
with  Tories,  and  with  the  British  officers  whom  some  of 
them  had  seen  among  the  Indians  when,  in  their  own 
early  life,  they  had  been  carried  as  prisoners  to  Detroit. 
They  had  learned  their  letters  from  a  primer  on  the 
title-page  of  which  was  a  cut  of  John  Rogers  at  the 
stake,  surrounded  by  his  wife  and  children.  The  pict- 
ure, with  its  moral,  was  as  deeply  fixed  in  their  preju- 
dices as  was  the  alphabet  in  their  memories. ^  The 
memory  of  the  early  missionary,  murdered  by  the 
Indians,  had  faded  out  of  the  land.^  But  in  1794,  a 
prominent  Presbyterian  minister,  the  first  president  of 

1  Roosevelt:  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  i.  p.  309. 

2  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  198. 


WAITING   FOR   VOLUNTEERS.  307 

Transylvania  University,  had  come  into  the  Church, 
been  ordained,  and  ministered  to  the  scattered  people. 
A  few  years  later  a  popular  Methodist  preacher  had 
followed  his  example.  But  in  the  main  the  country 
was  given  over  to  the  revivalism  which  came  in  during 
the  last  years  of  the  ^  Great  Awakening."  ^  P'rom  time 
to  time,  at  long  intervals,  adventurous  clergy  found 
their  way  among  the  uncouth  backwoodsmen.  In  the 
larger  towns  a  permanent  lodgement  was  slowly  effected. 
In  1829  the  clergy  of  the  region  and  lay  representa- 
tives from  Lexington,  Louisville,  and  Danville  met  and 
organized  the  Church  in  Kentucky.  Three  parishes, 
with  four  ministers,  composed  its.  strength.  They 
elected  Benjamin  Bosworth  Smith  to  be  their  bishop, 
and  another  State  was  admitted  to  the  federation. 

James  Harvey  Otey  was  a  gaunt,  raw-boned,  six-foot- 
three  son  of  a  Virginia  farmer,  the  grandson  of  a  Revo- 
lutionary soldier,  born  under  the  shadow  of 

Bishop  Otey. 

the  Peaks  of  Otter.  When  he  had  graduated 
at  the  "  University  of  North  Carolina  "  he  intrusted  his 
life  and  fortune  to  the  stream  which  was  bearing  the 
enterprise  and  vigor  of  his  day  to  the  West  and  South. 
The  wares  ?t  his  disposal  were  such  as  he  had  accumu- 
lated while  at  college.  He  moved  to  Franklin,  Tenn., 
and  became  the  pioneer  school-teacher.^  When  thus 
employed  he  came  in  contact  with  one  of  the  few  pass- 
ing priests,  and  was  baptized.  He  went  to  North  Caro- 
lina, and  was  ordained  by  Bishop  Ravenscroft,  the  man 


'  Tracy:  The  Great  Awakening. 

1  Roosevelt:  vol.  i.  p.  309. 

2  Green:  Life  of  Bishop  Otey,  p.  7. 


308  THE  TROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CIIUPvCH. 

he  loved  above  all  others.  When  he  returned  to  his 
school  there  was  no  Episcopal  congregation  in  the  State, 
and  no  other  clergyman  of  his  Church  within  two 
hundred  miles  of  him.^  His  office  was  despised  by  the 
people  among  whom  he  lived,  and  his  Church  was  held 
in  contempt.2  Curiosity  drew  the  people  to  '••  hear  the 
Episcopal  minister  pray,  and  liis  wife  jaw  l)aek  at  him  *' 
in  the  responses.^  When  they  had  come,  however, 
Otey's  splendid  character  and  deep  earnestness  retained 
them.  He  was  a  man  of  the  backwoodsmen's  own  sort. 
Once  when  he  was  asleep  in  a  rude  tavern,  a  local  gambler 
waked  hira  roughly  and  demanded  his  bed  as  his  own.  ■ 
When  the  sleepy  man  demurred  the  gambler  threatened 
to  throw  him  out  of  the  window.  Then  the  sturdy 
priest  thrust  from  under  the  cover  a  Ijrawny  arm,  worthy 
of  the  Holy  Clerk  of  Copmanhurst,  and  said  :  "  Before 
you  try  to  throw  me  out  of  the  window,  please  feel 
that."  *  His  stalwart  Christian  manliness  and  sweet 
devotion  made  him  and  his  Church  respected.  He  was 
tireless  and  successful  in  laboring  for  its  growth.  In 
1829,  he,  with  two  other  clergymen,  met  in  Nash- 
Church  in  viUe,  and  organized  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Tennessee.  Chnrch  of  Tennessee.  When  their  number 
grew  to  five,  they  chose  Ote}^  bishop,  and  a  new  State 
was  admitted  to  the  federal  Church.  The  churches  in 
Mississippi  put  themselves  under  Bishop  Otey's  care. 
Like    Chase    in    Ohio,    he    dreamed    of    a    theological 

1  Green  :  Life  of  Bishop  Otey,  p.  42. 

'-2  lb.,  p.  56:  "  I  knew  and  felt  at  tlie  time  tliat  I  was  looked  upon  with 
contempt,  if  not  de.spised,  by  the  great  mass  of  the  people.'' 
3  lb.,  p.  5(). 
*  lb.,  p.  84. 


WAITING   FOR   VOLUNTEERS.  •      309 

school.  He  was  a  teacher  by  instinct  and  habit.  He 
labored  for  years  to  establish  Christian  education.  He 
left  his  impress  upon  the  public  schools  of  his  own 
State  and  Mississippi.  He  founded  a  school  for  girls, 
and  another  for  boys.  But  his  own  dream  did  not 
come  true  for  many  a  year,  when  it  was  realized  in  the 
University  of  the  South.  In  the  tirst  five  years  of  liis 
Episcopate  the  clergy  of  his  diocese  increased  from  live 
to  twenty-one.^  But  a  whole  generation  had  meanwhile 
been  lost  to  the  Church. 

To  overtake  the  movement  of  population  in  the  great 
West  had  already  become  well-nigh  impossible.  Unless 
the  National  Church  should  abandon  its  preconception  of 
autonomous  State  Churches  it  never  would  be  possible. 
As  to  the  government  of  the  churches  already  within  the 
federation,  the  notion  of  State  independence  was  already 
slowly  disappearing.  A  movement  toward  centraliza- 
tion had  long  since  set  in  unobserved.  Powers  were 
even  now  exercised  by  the  General  Convention  without 
question,  which  had  at  first  been  assumed  without  ques- 
tion to  belong  to  the  States.  The  time  had  now  come 
for  tlie  National  Churcli  to  become  a  Propaganda.  In 
1835   it   abandoned  its  impotent  attitude  of 

The  new  ^ 

departure        waiting  for  churches  to  come,   and   resolved 

tt)  move  out  and  build  them.  The  General 
Convention,  in  that  year,  formally  declared  that  every 
baptized  member  was  ipso  facto  a  missionary  ;  consti- 
tuted a  Board  of  Managers  who  should  represent  the 
whole  people  ;  and  provided  for  the  sending  missionary 
bishops  in  advance  of  any  call  for  them. 

1  Green  :  Life  of  Bisliop  Otey,  p.  42. 


310  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

The  action  was  revolutionary.  Through  it,  Episco- 
pacy passed  from  the  idea  of  a  Federation  of  constituent 
State  Churches  to  that  of  a  National  Church  with  com- 
ponent dioceses.  It  was  not  by  accident  that  the  ques- 
tion of  the  division  of  one  of  the  original  States  into 
two  or  more  dioceses  arose  at  the  same  convention. 
Both  actions  sprang  from  the  same  source.  The  con- 
ception of  the  Church's  structure  had  changed.^  While 
the  old  theory  obtained,  its  enthusiasm  could  not  find 
expression.  So  long  as  it  remained  in  the  calm, 
cautious,  constructive  mood,  that  theory  would  suffice  ; 
but  if  ever  its  heart  should  be  deeply  stirred,  it  would 
change  its  way  of  thinking.  That  access  of  zeal  had 
already  come,  and  the  old  bottles  could  not  contain  the 
new  wine. 

1  White :  Memoirs,  p.  465. 


NEW  SPIRITUAL  FORCES.  311 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

NEW    SPIRITUAL   FORCES. 

The  preaching  of  the  Evangelical  leaders  "  awaked 
the  Church  of  England  from  its  philosophical  pride 
and  lethargy."  ^  The  sleep  had  been  so  profound  that 
it  had  looked  like  death.  The  repulsive  picture  of 
English  church  and  social  life  in  the  last  centur}-  need 
not  again  be  drawn.  In  America  things  had  never  been 
so  bad.  The  decencies  of  life  had  always  been  main- 
tained here.  But  in  the  first  years  of  the  century  the 
religious  tone  had  been  very  low  indeed.  The  Church 
Meagre  spir-  ^^^^^  largely  caught  the  spirit  of  the  age.  Those 
ituai  life.  -^yho  reorganized  it  were  men  whose  religious 
habits  had  been  fixed  under  the  old  conditions.  A  very 
few  were  men  of  marked  devotion,  but,  as  a  rule,  they 
were  content  with  a  very  low  spiritual  life,  and  entirely 
indifferent  to  doctrine."-^  The  clergy  hardly  took  their 
office  seriously,  and  the  laity  feared  "enthusiasm"  so 
much  that  they  were  content  with  less  than  earnestness. 
Virginia  rejected  the  "  Proposed  Book "  because  its 
rubric  gave  the  minister  the  power  to  repel  an  evil  liver 
from  the  Holy  Communion.  Maryland  chose  Dr.  Smith 
its  bishop,  well  knowing  his  questionable  habits ;  and  the 

1  Merivale:  Four  Lectures,  London,  1879. 

'  Ryle:  Christian  Leaders  in  tlie  Eighteenth  Century. 

2  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  188. 


812  THE   PROTESTAXT   EPLSCOrAL   CHURCH. 

General  Convention,  with  the  same  knowledge,  elected 
him  its  president.  Bishop  Provoost  lived  for  years 
in  neglect  of  the  offices  of  the  Church,  and  Bishop 
Madison  was  currently  believed  to  be  an  infidel.  The 
ecclesiastical  precision  of  Bishop  Seabury  and  the  Con- 
necticut clergy  made  them  earnest  to  preserve  the 
Church's  purity  in  doctrine  and  discipline  rather  than 
the  vigor  of  its  life.  A  spiritual  motive  force  was 
needed  to  carry  the  new  Church  into  and  through  its 
Titanic  task  of  ministering  to  the  needs  of  a  new  nation. 
Such  a  force  had  begun  to  show  itself  in  England  in 
tlie  darkest  days  of  the  last  century,  and  was  destined 
in  the  first  quarter  of  the  present  one  to  dominate  the 
American  Church. 

The  '^  Holy  Club,"  which  Wesley  joined  at  Oxford, 
was  only  one  of  many  similar  groups  of  earnest-minded 
men  who  prayed  for  light  in  the  midst  of  abounding 
gloom.  The  group  to  wdiich  Wesley  belonged  pursued 
its  own  course.  He  and  his  following  started  upon  a 
path  which  led  them  outside  the  Church  of  England. 
But  the  great  majority,  his  peers  in  zeal  and  wisdom, 
remained  within.  Wesley's  path  and  theirs  ran  parallel 
a  little  way,  but  soon  diverged.  Methodists  and  Evan- 
gelicals had  quite  as  many  points  of  difference  as  of 
likeness.!  They  were  different  stocks  from  the  same 
The  Evan-  ^'^^^-  ^^^^  Evangelical  fathers  could  not 
geiicais.  march  with  Wesley.  He  turned  from  them 
with  impatience  when  they  refused  to  break  a^^•ay  from 
the   old  order.2     His  methods  were  equally  distasteful 

i  Abbey  ai:fl  Overton:   Church  of  England  in  the  Eigliteenth  Cent 
ury,  vol.  ii.  p.  1^8. 
a  lb.,  vol.  ii.  p.  190. 


NEW   SPIRITUAL   FORCES.  313 

to  tliem.  The  hypercritical  Ilervey  and  the  learned, 
decorous  Roiiiaine  were  men  of  an  altogether  different 
t3'pe  from  Ingham,  the  Yorkshire  evangelist,  and  As- 
bury,  the  itinerant  revivalist.^  It  was  Venn,  the  faith- 
ful parish  [)riest  and  writer  of  the  robust  "  Complete 
Duty  of  Man,"  Scott,  the  staid  curate  of  Olney,  Milner, 
the  Church  historian,  Simeon,  tlie  missionary,  and  such 
as  these  who  were  the  fathers  of  the  Evangelicals. 
Their  influence  was  dominant  in  the  English  Church 
when  this  century  opened.  They  lifted  its  sodden  body 
from  the  mire  of  the  Georgian  era,  set  its  feet  upon  a 
rock,  and  established  its  goings.  They  had  their  pecul- 
iar cant,  as  all  religious  parties  have,  but  they  secured  an 
attention  which  other  language  would  hardly  have  com- 
pelled. A  mode  of  presenting  Christianity  which  could 
compel  the  assent  of  human  beings  so  far  unlike  as  Dr. 
Johnson  and  Hannah  More  must  needs  be  potent. 
The  two  salient  features  of  the  school  were  its  con- 
Their  differ-  ceptious  of  the  personal  Christian  life,  and  of 
entiate.  the  function  of  the  Church.     As  to  the  first 

of  these,  it  laid  emphasis  upon  Conversion.  Like  Roger 
Williams  and  Jonathan  Edwards,  like  the  Moravians  and 
Wesley,  it  conceived  the  starting-point  to  be  a  con- 
scious experience.  Their  system  had  for  its  background 
the  Augustinian  dogma  of  total  depravity.  John  New- 
ton, the  converted  slave-trader,  was  its  type.  The 
good  priest  Thomas  Scott,  already  of  saintly  life,  must 
needs  be  "  converted  "  after  years  of  a  useful  ministry ,2 

1  Tyerman:  Oxford  Methodists,  p.  332. 

2  Seely :  Later  Evangelical  Fathers,  p.  IGO. 

2  Petitions  were  publicly  offered  in  the  "  Prayer  Meetings"  of  certain 
Philadelphia  parishes  for  the  "conversion"  of  Bisliop  \Vhite  wlien  he 
was  already  a  patriarch  ! 


314  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

When  Simeon  gained  a  scholarship  at  King's  College, 
Cambridge,  and  confronted  the  legal  duty  of  receiving 
the  Lord's  Supper,  he  shrinks  away  in  terror.  He  buys 
the  old  ''  Whole  Duty  of  Man,"  and  makes  himself  ill 
Conscious  with  reading,  fasting,  and  praying.  He 
experience.  <.i.  sought  to  lay  his  sins  on  the  sacred  head  of 
Jesus,  and  on  the  Wednesday  began  to  have  a  hope  of 
mercy ;  on  Thursday  that  hope  increased ;  on  the  Friday 
and  Saturday  it  became  more  strong ;  on  the  Sunday 
morning  peace  flowed  in  rich  abundance  into  my  soul."  ^ 
This  is  typical.  Milner  expands  the  individual  expe- 
rience and  traces  it  in  his  history  of  the  Church. 
Heretofore,  he  contends,  men  have  written  the  story  of 
the  Church  as  they  would  the  annals  of  an  empire. 
He  will  distinguish  between  the  real  and  nominal 
Christians,  leave  the  latter  to  one  side,  and  trace  the 
Church  through  the  former.^ 

But  the  exploitation  of  the  personal  experience  did 
not  blind  them  to  the  use  of  the  Church.  Scott  main- 
tained the  weekly  Communion  at  a  time  when  it  was 
generally  neglected.^  Simeon  "  had  the  sweetest  access 
to  God  through  my  blessed  Saviour  at  the  Lord's  table." 
But  he  brings  his  previous  experience  into  the  closest 
relation  with  it.  When  the  priest  gave  him  a  piece  left 
over  of  the  consecrated  bread,  after  the  service,  "  I  put 
it  into  my  mouth,  covered  my  face  with  my  hand, 
and  prayed.  The  clergyman,  seeing  it,  smiled  at  me ; 
but  I  thought  that  if  he  had  felt  such  a  load  taken  off 

1  Seely:  Later  Evangelical  Fathers,  p.  238. 

2  Abbey  and  Overton:  English  Church  in  Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  ii. 
p.  210. 

3  Seely :  Later  Evangelical  Fathers,  p.  108. 


NEW   SPIRITUAL   FORCES.  315 

his  sold  as  I  had,  he  would  not  deem  my  praises 
superfluous." 

The  place  assigned  by  them  to  personal  experience, 

of  course,  gave  the  Evangelicals  a  peculiar  relation  to 

Christians  outside  their  own  or  any  church. 

Their  theory 

of  the  Whoever  was  ready  to  testily  to  his  own  con- 

Church.  scions  connection  with  Christ  must  needs  be 

accepted  as  a  brother.  No  one  might  go  behind  the 
man's  own  testimony,  —  unless,  indeed,  his  life  should 
grossly  discredit  it.  This  led  them  to  I'elations  with 
other  churches,  which  induced  those  who  claim  for  the 
Church  an  original  jurisdiction  in  the  religious  life  to 
distrust  their  purpose.  Simeon,  when  he  goes  to  Scot- 
land, has  Presbyterians  for  his  friends,  and  joins  with 
them  in  the  Sacrament  without  hesitation. ^  But  he  at 
once  turns  to  his  brethren  in  the  Church  and  explains. 
He  holds  that  an  English  clergyman  mat/  preach  in  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland,  in  which  his  king  inust 
worship,  if  there.  Besides  that,  he  declares  with  ear- 
nestness, that  after  every  such  experience  he  "  returns 
to  the  use  of  the  Liturgy  perfectly  astonished  at  the 
vast  superiority  of  our  own  mode  of  worship."  ^  The 
men  of  this  school,  both  in  England  and  America,  were 
always  emphatic  in  protesting  their  loyalty  to  the 
Church.  They  must  be  allowed  to  have  known  their 
Lo^  own    minds,  and   to  have  spoken  sincerely. 

Churchmen,  j^yt  they  did  not  always  get  themselves  be- 
lieved. They  gave  their  allegiance  to  the  Church  from 
use  and  wont,  from  conviction  of  her  better  ways  and 

1  Seely:  Later  Evangelical  Fathers,  p.  265. 

2  lb.,  p.  2()4. 


316  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

methods.  But  it  was  with  them  an  act  of  choice.  In  the 
background  of  their  minds  was  always  the  feeling  that 
they  might  innocently  have  chosen  otherwise.  The  peo- 
ple, with  that  rough  accuracy  which  belongs  to  popular 
judgment,  called  them  loiv  Churchmen.  Their  Ghurch- 
manship  was  a  matter  of  their  own  election,  and  not  of 
obligation.!  The  high  Churchman  distrusted  them,  not 
because  of  their  present  conduct,  but  from  fear  of  the 
latent  mischief  which  might  any  day  spring  from  their 
reservation  of  the  possibility  of  choice.  To  his  mind, 
it  was  not  a  region  where  a  choice  was  allowable. 

In  an  age  when  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Church  Avas 
well-nigh  extinct,  only  such  men  could  revive  it.  They 
believed  with  all  their  souls  in  the  awful  doom  which 
awaited  every  unconverted  man.  They  believed  that 
every  man  might  be  aroused  and  set  to  work  out  the 
tragedy  of  salvation  in  his  own  conscious  life.  This 
gave  to  the  words  of  earnest  men,  as  it  needs  must,  a 
pathos  and  entreaty  which  told.  Two  generations  later 
the  Evangelical  School,  as  such,  had  practically  disap- 
peared. By  that  time  the  Church,  which  it  had  waked 
into  life,  had  l)een  taken  by  the  hand  by  other  leaders, 
and  led  in  another  direction.  They  looked  after  her 
sadly,  for  they  loved  her.  They  felt  that  she  had  been 
beguiled  away  from  their  safer  guardiansliip.  But  the 
truth  was  that  their  decadence,  when  it  came. 

Cause  of  ^  ^  •  \        c 

their  de-         was    not  due   SO  much  to  the  trium[)n  ot  a 

''^'°^"  rival  ecclesiasticism,  as  to  the  fact  that  a  far 

deeper  change  had  taken  place  in  the  mind  of  the  i-elig- 

ious    world.      The   Evangelicals    had    been    Calvinists. 

1  Johns:  Life  of  Bishop  Meade,  p.  140. 


NEW   SPIRITUAL   FORCES.  317 

When  the  people  ceased  to  believe  the  Aiigustinian  an- 
thropology, the  motive  to  which  they  had  appealed  had 
gone.^  Their  preaching,  which  had  so  deeply  stirred  a 
generation  which  had  believed  itself  to  be  "  totally  de- 
praved," failed  to  move  a  generation  which  had  come 
into  a  truer  way  of  thinking  about  itself.  Salvation 
had  come  to  be  thought  of  less  as  a  rescue  from  impend- 
ing doom,  and  more  as  an  education  in  righteousness. 
The  dread  of  future  torment  became  less  easy  to  awake. 
The  "  larger  hope  "  embodied  itself  at  first  in  a  crude 
universalism.  A  soi-disant  church  sprang  up  with  this 
belief  for  its  foundation  and  title,  and  for  a  while  grew 
strong.  But  what  truth  was  in  it  diffused  itself  through 
the  Christian  world,  and  Universalism  declined.  A  truer 
estimate  of  man's  complex  nature  began  to  obtain.  This 
fundamental  change  of  view  coincided  in  point  of  time 
with  the  fresh  presentation  of  the  Church  as  an  author- 
itative teacher  and  guide.  When  this  had  come  about, 
men  turned  away  from  the  Evangelicals.  In  the  first 
quarter  of  the  century,  they  throve  apace  ;  in  the  sec- 
ond, they  encountered  a  rival  too  strong  for  them  ;  in 
the  third,  they  began  to  decline. 

In  1835,  the  period  at  which  the  Church  adjusted  her 
machinery  of  propagandism,  their  vigor  was  at  its  best. 
The    tracts    and  leaflets  of    Bishop  Porteus,  himself  a 
Virginian,    had   been    eagerly    read   by  Vir- 
Scott.  ginians.     Thomas  Scott,  the  rector  of  Aston 

Sanford,  Bucks,  to  eke  out  his  meagre  salary,  had  writ- 
ten the  famous  Commentary  from  which  so  many  mill- 
ions have  received  their  theology.     It  had  a  circulation 

1  The  Churchman:  vol.  v.  p.  856. 


318  THE   TROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUPX'H. 

hardly  paralleled  in  literary  history.  Before  his  death, 
in  1821,  the  English  edition  had  reached  twelve  thou- 
sand copies,  and  the  American  more  than  twenty-five 
thousand. 1  The  ^  Great  Awakening  "  and  the  Method- 
ist movement  had  i)repared  the  way  for  Evangelical 
work.  Rev.  Joseph  Pilmore,  once  a  Wesleyan  preacher, 
had  taught  it  in  Philadelphia.^  Dr.  Percy,  one  time  a 
chaplain  of  Lady  Huntingdon,  had  ])roclaimed  it  in 
Leaders  in  South  Carolina.  William  Duke,  a  Method- 
America,  [^i  while  the  ]\lethodists  remained  in  the 
Church,  had  preached  it  in  Maryland.  Bishop  Griswold 
commended  it  by  his  deep  piety  in  New  England,  out- 
side of  Connecticut.  But  the  great  apostle  was  Bishop 
Meade  of  Virginia.  It  was  the  motive  power  of  his 
own  earnestly  religious  life.^  For  years,  almost  single- 
handed,  he  had  labored,  and  successfully,  to  revive  the 
old  Virginia  Church.  Now  he  was  the  Evangelical 
champion  in  the  National  Church.  The  founding  of 
the  Virginia  Seminary  gave  their  distinctive  doctrines  a 
home.  In  Dr.  Wilmer,  its  chief  teacher,  they  found  a  fit 
and  winning  expositor.^  Hopkins,  Boyd,  Bull,  and  Be- 
dell in  Pennsylvania ;  Mihior  and  Channing  Moore  in 
New  York  ;  Mcllvaine  in  Brooklyn  ;  Tyng,  Bristed,  and 
Crocker  in  New  England,  all  poured  their  evangelical 
fervor  into  the  Church's  life.^  The  striking  success  of 
Chase  in  Ohio,  in  spite  of  the  sustained  opposition  of 
Bishop  Hobart,  had  given  it  eclat.  It  was  at  its  best  in 
mind  and  heart. 

'  Abbey  and  Overton  :  Church  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century, 
vol.  ii.  p.  206. 

2  Perry  :  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  192. 

^  Johns  :  Life  of  Bishop  Meade,  p.  255.     (Dr.  Sparrow's  Sermon.) 

*  Memoirs  of  Dr.  Tyng,  p.  70. 

*  Perry  :  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  193. 


NEW   SPIRITUAL   FORCES.  319 

But,  meanwhile,  a  stream  of  renewed  life  had  set  in 
from  another  quarter.  The  hard  and  narrow "Church- 
Hi  h-Church  manship  of  the  Tory  school  had  been  taken 
revival.  ^^p  by  Bishop  Hobart  of  New  York  and  his 

followers.     Their  broader  spirit   and   deeper   devotion 
made  it  more  humane.     Bishop  Seabury's  task  had  been 
to  stand  out  for  the  organizing  principle  of  the  Church. 
But   his    eye,  from    being   so  long  and  so  persistently 
fixed  upon  a  single  point,  had  lost  the  power  of  looking 
afield.     By  the  political  circumstance  in  which  he  and 
his  had  been  set,  they  had  been  isolated  from  contempo- 
rary  life.     Bishop    Hobart  was    as   uncompromising   a 
Churchman  as  Seabury,  but  he  was  a  man  of  his  time. 
He  brought   the  Episcopal  Church  into  harmony  with 
the  spirit  of  modern  life.     In  the  report  upon  the  state 
of  the  Church  for  1820,  the  State  upon  which  he  had 
left  his  impress  shows  more  life  and  work  than  all  the 
rest  together.!     One  hundred  and   eighteen  organized 
churches,    twenty-four   deacons,    and    fourteen    priests 
ordained,  fifteen  hundred  persons  confirmed,  a  flourish- 
ing mission  among  the  Oneida  Indians,  Bible  societies, 
Prayer-Book   societies,  Sunday-school    unions   and   the 
foundation  for  a  theological  seminary,  show  the  pres- 
ence of  a  new  force.     Being  set  in  charge  of  Connect- 
icut temporarily,  he  carried  there,  also,  the  same  broad 
sympathy,  tireless  energy,  ready  adaptability,  —  the  ele- 
ments  which   the   Church  of    Bishop  Seabury   needed. 
His    conception    of    the   Church  colored  the  stream  of 
emigration  which   flowed   steadily  westward  following 
the  latitude  of  his  own  State. 

1  Gen.  Con.  Journal,  1820. 


3'20  THE    PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

Away  to  the  south,  a  man  of  more  fiery  zeal,  but 
holding  fast  to  the  same  idea  of  Episcopacy,^  revived 
the  work  in  Nortli  Carolina.  Bishop  Ravenscroft  left 
his  mark  on  the  Church  in  the  South  and  Southwest.^ 
Otey,  the  pioneer  bishop  of  that  great  region,  who  had 
sat  at  his  feet  and  loved  him  as  a  father,  caught  his 
spirit  and  passed  it  on  to  ids  own  successor. 

There  had  now  emerged  in  the  Church  two  broadly 
distinguished  types  of  thought  and  life.  With  the 
The  two  death  of  Bishop  White,  in  1836,  the  last  sur- 

parties.  vivor  of  the  old  ''  opportunist  "  school  passed 

away.  The  future  now  for  a  generation  lay  between 
Evanofelicals  and  High  Churchmen.  The  line  of  cleav- 
age  did  not  run  sharply  through  the  mass.  The  two 
contrasted  principles  mingled  in  varying  proportions 
in  individuals.  The  same  man  might,  and  often  did, 
embrace  them  both.  He  held  to  the  conscious  religious 
life  with  the  Evangelical,  and  dreamed  of  ecclesiastical 
empire  with  the  High  Churchman.  Indeed,  in  all  the 
controversies  of  the  period,  each  makes  a  point  of  assert- 
ing that  he  held  to  the  [-rinciples  of  the  other,  —  modified 
and  corrected  by  his  own.  But  two  spirits  strove  within 
tlie  Church.  When  action  was  necessary,  party  lines 
were  drawn.  When  the  High  Churchmen  took  up  the 
Sunday-school  Union,  the  Evangelicals,  disturbed  at 
Bishop  Hobart's  Catechism,  and  scandalized  by  the  muti- 
lation of  Mrs.  Sherwood's  books,  started  an  Evangelical 
Knowledge  Society  as  an  offset.^    When  this  grew  influ- 

1  Norton:  Life  of  BisViop  Ravenscroft,  p.  95. 

2  Johns:  Life  of  Bishop  Meade,  p.  192. 

2  The  Churchman,  March  17,  1832. 

3  Johns:  Life  of  Bishop  Meade,  p.  225. 


NEW   SPIRITUAL   FORCES.  321 

ential,  the  other  side  set  up  the  Churchman's   Lil)rary.^ 
They  worked  and  planned  together  to  organize  the  new 
machinery    of    missions :     hut    when    the     Evangelicals 
began    to   suspect  that    they  had  been  outmanoiuvred, 
they  set  up  a  rival  volunteer  society .^     Their  enthusi- 
Division  of      '^^"^  ^^'^^^  already  found  a  vent  in  foreign  mis- 
labor,  sions.     Through    their  beloved   Simeon  and 
Henry  Martyn,  the  religious  world  had  been  stirred  with 
pity  for   heathenesse.     This  was    the    field   into  which 
the    Evangelical    could    move    far    more    readily    than 
could  the  pronounced  High  Churchman.     The  purpose 
which  he  set  before  himself,  to  awaken  individual  souls 
and   lead  them  one  by  one  to  establish  relations  with 
God,  required  little  machinery.     All  that  was  needed 
was  to  find  a  godly  man  who  should  go  and  "  tell  them 
the   story  of  the  Cross."     In  1822  a  mission  to  Africa 
was   determined   upon,  but  no  ship  could  be  found  to 
carry  out   Ephraim  Bacon  and  his  wife.     In  1834  the 
Rev.    Henry  Lockw^ood   sailed   to    China,    where    this 
Church  has  now  twenty-two  native  clergy.     With  the 
single  exception  of  the  abortive  attempt  in  Turkey,  all 
the  foreign  mission  enterprises  were  manned  from  the 
Virginia  Seminary.-^     A  tacit  understanding  had  been 
reached  that  this  should  be  the  field  of  the  Evangeli- 
cals, while    the  High    Churchmen  should   exploit    the 
home    field.*     There  does   not  seem  to  have   been  any 
conscious    strategy   in    this    arrangement,   but    it  acted 
directly  in  the  interest  of  High  Churchmanship,  which 

1  Johns:  Life  of  Bishop  Meade,  p.  230. 
'-!  lb.,  p.  200. 

3  lb.,  p.  197. 

4  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  194. 


322  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

for   a   long  time    steadily  gained   ground.     While    its 

opponents'  energy    was   directed   elsewhere,  it   moved 

northwest  and  southwest,  crossed   the    Mis- 

Rising 

Churchman-    sissippi,  and  has  since  been- dominant.     The 

^  '^"  Low    Churchmen's     expectation    that    they 

should  secure  at  least  one  of  the  two  new  missionary 

bishoprics  was  disappointed.^ 

The    Church's    forces    moved    out,    under   the    new 

leaders,  to  win  the  mighty  West.     To   trace    in  detail 

the  steps  by  which  they  covered  the  prairies. 
Following  i        J  J  1 

the  ernigra-  climl)ed  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  went 
with  the  gold-hunters  to  the  Pacific,  Avould 
require  a  volume.  The  roll  of  the  missionaries'  names 
would  fill  a  book.  The  Church  simply  followed  the 
emigrant,  often  lagging  far  behind  him,  but  keeping 
him  in  sight  while  her  strength  would  hold  out.  When 
he  had  built  his  cabin,  she  sought  him  out  in  it.  When 
the  great  cities  sprang  up  in  the  wilderness,  she  entered 
into  them  and  built  her  house.  When  the  savage  Ind- 
ian was  restrained,  and  fixed  to  a  permanent  abode, 
she  did  her  share  to  make  him  human  and  Christian. 
She  met  a  various  welcome  for  her  proffered  gifts. 
Peoples  who  knew  neither  her  nor  her  fathers  founded 
new  connuunities,  and  she  could  not  speak  their  speech 
or  win  their  friendship.  Other  churches  entered  the 
new  field  beside  her,  before  her,  and  behind  her.  She 
often  failed  where  they  succeeded.  She  often  succeeded 
after  their  success  had  changed  to  failure.  It  maj^  fairl}^ 
be  said  of  her  that  she  has  striven  with  an  honest  heart 

1  Johns:  Life  of  Bishop  Meade,  p.  200. 
1  Meade:  Old  Churches,  p.  379. 


NEW   SPIRITUAL   FORCES.  323 

to  do  her  share  in  making  and  keeping  the  new  America 
Christian.  In  the  long,  strennons  task,  she  has  more 
and  more  sharply  emphasized  her  churchly  aspect. 

When  Chase  reached  the  new  land  of  Ohio,  in  1817, 
it  seemed  natural  for  him  to  begin  his  work  at  "  Cove- 
nant Creek  "   by  calling  together  his  neigh- 
Two  ideals.      ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^  preaching  of  the  Word,  and  the 

Prayers.  When  Breck  and  his  companions  laid  down 
their  packs  under  an  elm-tree  in  Minnesota,  in  1850,  it 
seemed  equally  natural  and  fitting  to  them  to  "erect 
a  rustic  cross,  build  a  rude  altar  of  rougli  stones,  and 
begin  their  work  by  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharistic 
Feast." 


324  THE   PKOTESTAXT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 


-CHAPTER   IX. 

THE   CATHOLIC    PvEXAISSAXCE. 

Between  1835  and  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  the 
Church  adjusted  its  manner  of  life  to  its  changed  con- 
ception of  its  constitution.  When  it  had  determined  to 
send  missionary  bishops  to  the  unappropriated  West,  it 
abandoned  the  attitude  of  a  federation  waiting  for  new 
units  to  propose  themselves  for  membership.  For  the 
future  it  intended  to  act  as  a  National  Church.  When 
it  divided  one  of  the  old  integers,  and  made  a  second 
diocese  in  New  York,  the  old  conception  of  State 
churches  became  no  longer  possible. 

"  The  change  wa?  fundamental.  The  analogy  be- 
tween '  States  '  and  '  dioceses  '  was  thereby  broken 
down.  Not  only  did  the  idea  of  diocesan  sovereignty 
thus  receive  a  serious  shock,  but  in  proportion  to  the 
weakening  of  the  dioceses  by  subdivision  was  the  power 
of  the  General  Church  increased."  ^  The  change  was 
made,  so  far  as  can  be  seen,  without  a  dissenting  voice. 
•It  only  recorded  a  change  which  had  alread}"  occurred 
in  people's  way  of  thinking.  The  Church  was  becom- 
ing less  an  abstraction  and  more  an  entity.  From  many 
directions  influences  were  converging  to  bring  out  this 
idea  into  distinct  consciousness.     The  nation  was  be- 

1  Dr.  Francis  Wharton,  in  Perry:   Historj-,  vol.  ii.  p.  40L 


THE   CATHOLIC    RENAISSANCE.  325 

coming  consolidated,  and  the  Church  centralized.  One 
of  the  capital  powers  originally  reserved  to  the  States 
was  assumed  by  the  General  Church,  without  chal- 
lenge, when  it  provided  for  the  trial  and  deposition  of 
a  diocesan  bishop.^  Possibly  the  grotesque  result  of 
a  diocesan  trial,  just  had,  may  have  influenced  this 
chano-e.  The  Bishop  of  Kentucky  had  been  presented 
„  .  ,  »  under   an   accusation    of    falsehood.       There 

Trial  of 

bishops.  were  three  charges  against  him,  of  one  hun- 

dred and  ninety-eight  specifications.^  The  astounding 
verdict  of  the  court  chosen  b}'-  the  diocese  had  been : 
"Guilty;  but  without  the  least  criminality  I  "  ^  Under 
the  changed  law  the  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania  was  tried 
and  suspended  for  drunkenness.  His  brother,  the  Bishop 
of  New  York,  was  tried  and  suspended  for  lasciviousness. 
The  Bishop  of  New  Jerse}^  was  three  times  presented, 
and  twice  brought  before  a  court,  but  without  trial, 
upon  charges  affecting  his  integrity.  All  these  trials, 
which  at  the  time  occupied  the  general  attention,  served 
to  fix  the  popular  mind  upon  the  General  Church, 
which  was  the  party  prosecuting.  It  came  to  be 
looked  to  as  the  sole  source  of  authority  in  matters 
of  discipline.  It  was  but  a  step  to  thinking  likewise  of 
its  authority  in  doctrine  and  life.  The  religion  of 
Church  people  was  unconsciously  taking  a  deeper 
ecclesiastical  tinge.  The  Church  was  becoming  more 
sharply  differentiated,  not  only  from  the  world,  but 
from   the    current    forms    of    American    Christianity. 

1  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  278. 
■^  The  Clmrchman,  vol.  vii.  No.  38. 

3  "  Sentence  of  tlie  Court  in  the  case  of  the  Diocese  of  Kentucky  ''s 
the  Right  Rev.  B.  B.  Smith." 


326  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

Prayer-Book  societies  were  actively  sustained  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  York.  Their  purpose  was  not  solely 
to  teach  men  how  to  pray.  A  second  purpose,  which 
soon  stepped  up  beside  the  primary  one,  was  to  propa- 
gate the  Church.  Tract  societies  which  had  this  for 
their  avowed  object  began  to  be  popular.^  "  Nova  An- 
glicana "'  wrote  long  articles  against  the  Puritans.  Dr. 
Muhlenberg's  broad,  catholic  spirit  began  to 
idea.  make  itself  felt  upon  his  pupils.     The  elder 

Bishop  Doane  and  Dr.  Croswell  struck  the  same  note 
in  their  hymns  and  sonnets  that  Keble  did  in  his 
''  Christian  Year."  ^  Professor  Doane  of  Trinity  Col- 
lege was  the  first  to  welcome  Keble  in  America.  He 
had  anticipated  his  motive.  Dr.  Coxe  soon  carried  the 
theme  to  its  highest  note  and  sweetest  harmony,  in  his 
"  Christian  Ballads."  Professor  Whittingham  at  the 
General  Seminary  marshalled  the  facts  of  Church  his- 
tory to  the  same  end.  Bishop  Hopkins,  the  keenest  of 
controversialists,  wrote  the  "  Primitive  Creed  "  and  the 
"  Primitive  Church."  Dr.  Francis  L.  Hawks  gathered 
up  the  Church  record  of  colonial  times.  Bishop  Onder- 
donk  carried  on  a  pamphlet  war  with  Presbyterians 
about  the  divine  right  of  Episcopacy.^  Books  of  sac- 
ramental devotion  began  to  come  in.  Bishop  Gris- 
wold's  and  Bishop  Meade's  Family  Prayers  continued 
to  sell,  but  Bishop  Hobart's  "Companion  for  the 
Altar"  outsold  them  both.*  The  great  Temperance 
enthusiasm  which  was  agitating  the  world,  preaching 

1  The  Churchman:   vol.  v.  p.  835. 

2  Rev.  Julius  H.  Ward,  in  Ferry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  615. 

3  The  Churchman,  vol.  v.  p.  816. 

*  lb.,  vol.  v.,  advertisements,  passim. 


THE   CATHOLIC    RENAISSANCE.  327 

total  abstinence  as  a  duty  and  denouncing  the  use  of  fer- 
mented wine  at  the  Holy  Communion,  called  public  at- 
tention to  the  Church's  different  way  of  dealing  with  this 
and  kindred  subjects. ^  A  new  collection  of  Hymns, 
chiefly  the  selection-  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg  and  Bishop 
Onderdonk,  had  now  been  long  enough  in  use  to  infuse 
Increasing  ^  more  distinctive  churchly  sentiment  among 
activity.  the  people.  Church  schools  were  springing 
up  on  every  hand.  Dr.  Muhlenberg  was  fixing  the 
type  of  them  at  Flushing  Institute.  Bristol  College 
advertised  that  it  was  so  full  that  no  more  students 
could  be  accommodated.^ 

Parish  machinery  for  Church  work  was  set  up  every- 
where, —  female  sewing  societies,  missionary  societies, 
aid  societies,  benevolent  societies,  —  until  an  English 
Church  paper  ridicules  the  movement  by  declaring 
that  a  church  in  Boston  had  started  a  "  Ladies'  Anti- 
young-man-standing-at-the-church-door  Society."  *  The 
Bishop  of  New  York  issued  a  plea  for  free  churches 
in  the  interest  of  church  extension,  and  liis  plea  was 
opposed  from  Philadelphia  on  the  ground  that  not 
propagation  but  edification  was  the  pressing  need.^ 
The  attention  of  the  whole  Church  was  kept  fixed  by 
the  General  Missionary  Society  upon  the  needs  of  the 
West.  It  cries  out  with  shame  that  while  the  town  of 
St.  Louis  is  ready  and  anxious  to  have  a  minister,  there 
is  not  one  in  the  whole  State  of  Missouri;^  that  there  is 

1  Tlie  Clinrchraaii,  vol.  ii.  p.  90(3. 

2  Ayres:  Life  of  Dr.  Mulilenberg,  p.  84. 

3  Tlie  Churcliman,  vol.  v.  p.  835. 

4  lb.,  vol.  V.  p.  858. 

5  lb.,  vol.  vi.  pp.  1070,  1174. 

6  lb.,  vol.  V.  p.  8<I8. 


328  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUPvCH. 

but  one  in  the  State  of  Mississippi.  It  announces  with 
enthusiasm  that  a  strong  parish  has  been  organized  in 
Mobile  and  another  hopeful  one  in  Memphis  ;  and  that 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Salmon  has  just  started  from  Western 
New  York,  with  a  little  company  of  fifteen  families,  to 
found  a  Church  colony  in  Texas. ^ 

Four-legged  Communion  tables  were  going  out,  and 
solid  oaken  ones  were  coming  in.  In  a  few  churches 
Change  of  stone  altars  began  to  appear.  The  black 
manners.  academic  gown  began  to  give  place  to  the 
white  priestly  robe  as  the  dress  of  the  officiating  minis- 
ter. The  surplice,  which  had  been  split  down  the 
front  a  century  before,  so  that  it  might  be  put  on  with- 
out deranging  the  befloured  wigs,  was  now  sewed  up 
again,  and  on  its  breast  began  to  show  some  churchly 
emblem.  Memorials  began  to  come  up  to  have  its  use 
made  obligatory.^  Bishop  Hobart  criticises  the  Vir- 
ginians for  their  neglect  of  ornaments,  and  Bishop 
Meade  defends  them.  He  urges  that  de  minimis  non 
curat  lex ;  .that  Bishop  Hobart  himself  sometimes  dis- 
pensed not  only  with  his  robes  but  with  his  gown  as 
well ;  that  he  had  the  high  example  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  for  ordaining  deacons  in  their  every-day 
dress ;  and  that  Bisliop  Moore  had  never  worn  any 
uniform,  saA'^e  when  performing  distinctively  episcopal 
acts.3  Both  the  criticism  and  the  defence  show  the 
drift. 

The  emergence  of  the  idea  of  corporate  religion  as  dis- 
tinguished from  individual  salvation  directed  attention 

1  The  Cliurchinan :  vol.  vi.  p.  lOiO. 
•^  Juhns:  Life  of  Bishop  lAIeade,  p.  240. 
3  lb.,  pp.  240,  241 


THE   CATHOLIC   RENAISSANCE.  329 

both    to    the    ministry    and   to    the    machinery    of    the 

Chnrch.      Nor  was  this  drift  toward   corporate   action 

in  religion  confined  to  the  Episcopal  Chnrch. 

Corporate  o  r  ^     ■     •  i  i        tm 

religion.         Jt  was  moving  in  the  Christian  world.      1  lie 
Methodists  were  gathering  tlieir  scattered  forces  into 
an  ecclesiastical  empire,^  and  lamenting  the  decadence 
of  the  personal  enthusiasm  which  had  marked  the  men 
of  the  previous  generation.     In  1832  a  General  Synod 
had  taken  up  into    itself  the  particular  synods  of  the 
Reformed    Church.^     Ten   years   earlier  the    Reformed 
Presbyterians  had  organized  their  Presbyteries  into  a 
General  Synod.^     The  question  of  constitutional  right, 
which  in  1837  split  it  asunder,  was  agitating  the  Presby- 
terian General   Assembly .^     The  last  step  in  the  cen- 
tralization of  the  Roman  Church  was  coming  within  the 
range  of  practical  politics,  in  the  dogma  of  Papal  Infal- 
libility.    The    old    churches   of   Sir  Christopher  Wren 
were   being  replaced  by  a  higher   ecclesiastical   archi- 
tecture.    The  current  of  religious  feeling  was  setting 
steadily  away  from  the  sharp  individuaUsm  of  Edwards 
and  Whitefield  and  Wesley  and  the  Great  Awakening, 
and  the  Evangelicals,  toward  the  thought  of  solidarity 
among  those  who  are  being  saved. 

The   set   was   already    evident,   when    the    "Oxford 
^,   un^  .   Movement"  came.     It  changed  the  current 

The      Oxford  ^    ^^s•     ^ 

Movement."  i^to  a  flood.  Its  effect  upon  C  hurcn  iite  nas 
been  so  enormous  that  it  should  be  traced  from  its 
origin. 

1  Stevens:  History  of  Methodism,  pp.  520,  582. 

2  Manual  of  the  Refovnicd  Church  in  America,  third  edition,  p.  73. 

3  Schaff-Herzos  Encyclopaedia,  p.  1908. 

4  Schaff-Herzog,  p.  l'J08. 


330  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

In  1825  the  Church  of  England  was  dominated  by  a 
devout  but  meagre  Calvinism.  Its  political  life  was 
tossed  and  threatened  b}-  the  wave  of  liberalism  which 
had  broken  over  France  a  generation  earlier.  Many- 
sagacious  men  feared  that  forces  were  moving  in  society 
which  were  hostile  to  religion  itself.  They  believed 
that  the  current  mode  of  presenting  Christianity  could 
not  prevail  against  them.  They  believed  the  Church  to 
be  in  special  danger.  They  had  no  confidence  in  its 
recognized  champions.  All  sorts  of  Church  '"Reforms" 
were  afloat.  One  proposed  the  abolition  of  church 
rates.  Another  offered  to  expel  the  bishops  from  Par- 
liament. Another  proposed  entire  separation  of  Church 
and  State.  Another  offered  to  unite  all  sects  with  the 
Church  by  act  of  Parliament,  and  give  them  the  use  of 
church  buildings  conjointly .^  A  Roman  Catholic  Re- 
lief Bill  and  a  Reform  Bill  were  pending.  In  1833  ten 
Irish  bishoprics  were  suppressed.  The  same  year  a 
little  group  of  men  met  in  the  Common  Room  of  Oriel 
College,  Oxford,  to  form  an  "  Association  for  vindicat- 
ing the  Rights  of  the  Church  and  restoring  the  Knowl- 
edge of  Sound  Principles."  ^ 

The  company  were  bound  together  only  by  the  bond 
of  a  common  purpose.  That  was  declared  in  the  title 
The  "Tract-  ^f  the  association.  To  reach  their  end  each 
arians."  j^^^^,^  ^yj^^g  fj.gg  ^q  -^valk  in  his  own  road. 
Some  gave  their  adhesion  to  the  association  after  it  was 
founded  ;  some  never  formally  joined  it  at  all.  Their 
names  have  become  known  the  world  over  :  —  Froude, 

1  Stephens:  Life  of  Dean  Hook,  p.  106,  et  seq, 

2  lb.,  p.  107. 


THE   CATHOLIC   RENAISSANCE.  331 

Keble,  Palmer,  Rose,  Puse}^  and,  greatest  of  all,  New- 
man. Their  object  was  to  restore  the  Church's  true 
doctrine.  They  held  tliat,  at  present  at  least,  emphasis 
was  laid  upon  doubtfid  or  untenable  dogmas,  while  the 
abiding  truths,  the  truths  which  Ijelonged  to  the  Church 
pre-eminently,  had  been  allowed  to  fall  into  obscurity. 
These  last  were  the  ones,  they  maintained,  about  which 
must  be  fought  the  battle  against  infidehty.  They  set 
about  to  re-state  them,  in  a  series  of  ''  Tracts  for  the 
Times."  What  the  doctrines  were  may  be  seen  from 
the  titles  of  the  Tracts.  They  were  such  as  these : 
Tlioughts  on  the  ^Ministerial  Commission ;  The  Catholic 
Church ;  Archbishop  Ussher  on  Prayers  for  the  Dead ; 
On  Baptismal  Regeneration  ;  On  Apostolical  Succes- 
■  sion ;  On  the  Doctrine  of  the  Holy  Eucharist ;  On 
Purgatory ;  On  Reserve  in  communicating  Religious 
Knowledge  ;  On  Fasting  ;  On  Holy  Baptism.i 

The  Tracts  were  for  the  most  part  from  Newman's 
pen.2  When  they  first  began  to  appear,  they  were 
hailed  with  welcome  by  the  men  who,  throughout  the 
kingdom,  were  dissatisfied  Avith  the  existent  life.  But 
they  presently  became  disturbing.  The  fear  arose  that 
if  the  English  Church  should  be  rehabilitated  by  these 
men,  her  children  would  not  be  able  to  recognize  her  in 
her  new  dress.  This  apprehension  became  a  certainty 
when  Newman  put  out  Tract  No.  XC.  In  it  he  sus- 
tained the  thesis  that  the  teachings  of  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles,  '^  though  the  offspring  of  an  uncatholic  age, 
are,  to   say  the  least,  not  uncatholic,  and  may  be  sub- 

1  Tracts  for  the  Times:  6  vols.,  Kivinj^tons,  1834. 

2  StepLens:  Life  of  Dean  Hook,  p.  111. 


332  THE  PROTESTANT   EribCOrAL   CHURCH. 

scribed  to  by  those  who  aim  at  being  catholic  in 
lieai't  and  doctrine/'  ^  Wliat  he  meant  by  ''  catholic  " 
became  evident  from  the  text.  It  meant  something 
which  plain  men  could  not  distinguish  from  Romish. 
This  had  been  steadfastly  denied  by  the  Tractarians. 
The  Via  ^i'li*-'y  1^'^tl  maintained  that  there  was  a  Via 
Media.  Media,  a  middle    path,   betAveen   Rome   and 

Protestantism,  —  that  this  middle  term  was  Catholicity. 
But  to  the  Tractarians  this  middle  ground  could  not  be 
satisfactory.  They  sought  a  position  for  the  Church 
from  which  it  could  beat  back  the  forces  of  liberalism. 
They  found  that  Liberalism  and  Protestantism  were 
the  same  in  essence.  The  heart  of  each  was  private 
judgment  as  against  authoritij.  Newman  came  to  see 
this  before  his  fellows  did.  His  quarrel  was  not  with  the 
current  doctrine  or  practice  of  the  Church,  but  witli 
what  he  conceived  to  be  a  fatal  tendency  in  society 
Newman's  itsclf.  "  My  battle  was  with  Liberalism. 
purpose.  gy  Liberalism  I  mean  the  anti-dogmatic 
spirit  and  its  development.  It  is  scarcely  now  a  party ; 
it  is  the  educated  lay  world.  It  is  nothing  else  than 
that  deep,  plausible  skepticism  Avhich  is  the  develop- 
ment of  human  reason  as  practically  exercised  by  the 
natural  man."  ^ 

His  was  a  profound  distrust  of  the  s})irit  of  the  age. 
Against  the  incoming  of  this  spirit  lie  could  see  no 
barrier  which  he  thought  to  l)e  sufficient.  He  appealed 
therefore  from  the  world  to  the  Church,  and  from  the 
Church    of    the    present   to    the    Church    of    the    past. 

'  Introduction  to  Tract  No.  XC. 

2  Apologia:  New  York,  Catholic  Publishing  House,  p.  285. 


THE  CATHOLIC  RENAISSANCE.  333 

Under  his  leadership  a  compan}^  of  choice  spirits  set 
out  upon  a  voyage  of  discovery  through  the  centuries 
in  search  of  a  church  which  woukl  be  true  enough  to 
teach  men,  and  strong  enough  to  govern  them,  A  deep 
interest  had  lately  been  awakened  in  the  middle  ages 
by  the  romances  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.^  The  wizard  had 
cast  a  glamour  over  the  pre-Reformation  Church,  With 
a  profound  disbelief  in  present  inspiration,  the  Tracta- 
rians  adventured  hopefully  to  find  a  pure  and  perfect 
church  at  some  point  in  the  past. 

It  is  a  common  belief  that  a  wish  to  reform  glaring 

abuses  then  existent  in  the  Church  was  a  co-operative 

motive.     There  is  little  evidence  of  the  exist- 

Tractarians 

not  reform-  ence  of  such  abuses,  and  none  of  any  attempt 
to  reform  them.  It  was  not  a  beautiful  age, 
but  the  Church  in  England  and  America  seems  to  have 
been  discharging  her  practical  duties  relatively  as  well 
as  in  any  age.^  The  leaders  of  the  "  Oxford  Move- 
ment" did  not  burden  tliemselves  with  reform  of  evil 
manners.  They  had  a  different  aim.  Men  could  only 
be  safe  in  thought  and  conduct  when  led  b}'  a  visible 
Divine  Authoiity.  No  trustworthy  authority  was  ex- 
tant ;  they  would  find  one  in  a  restored  and  recon- 
structed Church.  They  gathered  the  materials  for 
such  a  church  painfully  from  various  places  and  dates, 
and  put  them  together  in  an  ideal  which  they  called  a 

1  Fisher:  History  of  Christian  Church,  p.  630. 

2  Mozley:  Reminiscences,  ch.  li. 

2    Newman's  account  of  liis    own    reli.uions    life,   Apologia:    p.   56, 
-'  .  .  .  Thomas  Scott,  to  whom,  humanly  speaking,  I  owe  my  soul." 
'^  Froude:  Short  Studies,  Scrihners,  1883,  p   156. 
2  Dean  Hook:  Life,  pp.  <)!),  103. 
2  Beardsley  :  History  of  the  (!luirch  in  Connecticut,  vol.  ii.  p.  244. 


33 i  THE   PROTEST AXT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

Via  Media  between  liberalism  and  papalism,  between 
Protestantism  and  Komauism  as  tliey  then  were.  This 
ideal  was  abandoned  with  scorn  by  its  constructors,  who 
went  away  by  opposite  roads,  Newman  and  his  friends 
to  Rome,  Fronde  and  his  friends  to  infidelity.  Hook 
and  his  friends  to  the  work  they  had  been  doing  before 
the  movement  began. 

Before  his  departure  Newman  made  a  present  of  his 
Via  Media :  ''  Whether  the  ideas  of  the  coming  age 
upon  religion  be  true  or  false,  they  will  be  real.  In  the 
present  day  mistiness  is  the  mother  of  wisdom.  A  man 
who  can  set  down  half  a  dozen  general  propositions, 
which  escape  from  destroying  one  another  only  by 
being  diluted  into  truisms  ;  who  can  hold  the  balance 
between  opposite  sides  so  skilfully  as  to  do  without 
fulcrum  or  beam ;  who  never  enunciates  a  truth  with- 
out guarding  himself  against  being  supposed  to  exclude 
its  contradictory ;  who  holds  that  Scripture  is  the  only 
authority,  yet  that  the  Church  is  to  be  deferred  to  ;  that 
faith  only  justifies,  yet  that  it  does  not  justify  without 
works ;  that  grace  does  not  depend  on  the  sacraments, 
yet  is  not  given  without  them ;  that  bishops  are  a 
divine  ordinance,  yet  those  who  have  them  not  are  in 
the  same  religious  condition  as  those  who  have  ;  —  this 
state  of  things  cannot  go  on  if  men  are  to  read  and 
think.  They  cannot  go  on  forever  standing  on  one  leg, 
or  sitting  without  a  chair,  or  walking  with  their  feet 
tied,  or  grazing  like  Tityrus'  stags  in  the  air.  They 
will  take  one  view  or  other,  but  it  will  be  a  consistent 
view."  ^ 

1  Apologia,  p.  144. 


THE   CATHOLIC   RENAISSANCE.  335 

Those  who  fell  heir  to  this  contemptuous  gift  brought 
it    to    America.     Upon    its    arrival   here    it 

The  Via  <•     /-ii  1 

Media  in  found,  in  rough,  three  classes  ot  Church- 
menca.  i^xen,  at  whose  hands  it  received  a  various 
reception.^ 

There  were,  first,  the  Evangelicals,  who  had  drawn 
their  inspiration  from  the  same  pietistic  revival  which 
had  originally  revolted  the  Tractarians.  These  turned 
away  from  it  with  anger  and  contempt.  To  their  minds 
the  very  principle  of  authority  was  abhorrent,  and  of 
all  authorities,  ecclesiastical  was  the  worst. 

There  were,  second,  the  Laudian,  non-juring,  Seabury 
type,  who  gave  it  a  guarded  and  cautious  welcome.  Its 
seeming  reverence  for  antiquity  appeared  to  them  to  be 
a  desirable  re-enforcement  to  their  spirit  of  conservatism. 
But  this  class  was  small  in  numbers  and  in  influence. 
The  men  who  had  once  belonged  to  it  had  been  suc- 
ceeded by  men  of  Hobart's  school.  Their  vigorous 
Americanism,  and  their  absorption  in  practical  work, 
prevented  the  mass  of  High  Churchmen  from  becoming 
either  doctrinaires  or  ritualists. 

In  the  tliird  place  were  the  distinctly  American 
Churchmen.  The  principle  of  Authority,  in  the  Ox- 
ford sense,  was  not  grateful  to  them ;  but  they  were 
accustomed  to  a  legally  regulated  liberty.  This  class 
embraced  a  large  proportion  of  the  clergy  and  most  of 
American  ^^^®  laity.  They  had  been  accustomed  to 
Churchmen,  think  and  speak  of  themselves  as  Protestants. 
They  possessed  to  a  marked  degree  that  broad,  prac- 
tical, clear-sighted  wisdom  which  had  belonged  to  the 

1  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  192-4. 


336  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

first  generation  of  English  reformers.  They  differed 
widely  from  their  contemporary  English  C-hurchmen. 
There  was  hardly  any  class  there  to  which  they  corre- 
sponded. They  had  not  been  reared  upon  Evangeli- 
calism ;  but  no  more  were  they  Anglo-Catholics.  They 
called  themselves  Episcopalians.  It  was  rather  the 
Church's  present  life  than  its  past  history  which  at- 
tracted and  held  them.  Antiquity  did  not,  to  their 
minds,  carry  obligation  with  it.  They  compared  the 
Church  with  the  other  forms  which  Christianity  pre- 
sented here  in  America,  and  it  commended  itself  to 
their  judgments  and  consciences.  They  neither  hailed 
nor  feared  the  Oxford  Movement  for  themselves,  but 
they  were  often  disturbed  by  the  phenomena  which  it 
produced  in  the  Church  which  they  loved.  Chiefly 
they  feared  that  if  it  prevailed  it  would  set  the  Church 
in  hopeless  antagonism  to  their  Protestant  neiglibors. 
For,  while  they  did  not  declaim  against  the  Pope,  and 
thought  it  ill-bred  to  call  Rome  the  scarlet  whore,  they 
did  not  shut  their  eyes,  to  the  fact  that  they  were  more 
akin  to  Protestantism  than  they  were  to  her. 

But  from  all  of  these  groups  the  movement  drew 
recruits.  It  drew  as  with  a  magnet  a  certain  type  of 
men.  They  who  loved  symmetry  of  doctrine  so  much 
that  they  could  hold  to  a  system  in  spite  of  the  contra- 
dictory facts  of  human  life  ;  they  who  distrusted  them- 
selves and  shrank  from  the  labor  of  ordering  their  own 
religious  conduct ;  they  whose  imagination  was  kindled 
by  the  thought  of  a  visible,  holy,  dominant,  spiritual 
mistress,  —  these  were  attracted  by  that  method  of  liv- 
ino-  whose   rationale  had  been  stated  in  Dean   Hook's 


THE   CATHOLIC    RENAISSANCE.  337 

sermon  before  the  Queen,  "Hear  the  Church."^  This 
principle  being  accepted,  an  importance  and  a  value 
were  attributed  to  the  rules,  rituals,  ordinances,  and 
offices  of  the  Church,  which  these  did  not  have  before. 
They  became  obligatory,  not  only  or  chiefly  because 
they  were  intrinsically  fit  or  excellent,  but  because  they 
were  of  authority.  Possessing  such  wisdom  and  power, 
the  "  Church "  should,  through  her  ordinances  and 
officials,  touch  each  soul  at  every  point  and  moment  of 
its  earthly  history. 

That  no  objective  fact  does  now,  or  ever  has,  corre- 
sponded to  this  ideal  of  the  "  Church,"  did  not  disturb 
Anglo-  those  who  were  under  the  domination  of  the 

Catholics.  idea.  They  chose  from  one  century  of  the 
past  one  feature,  and  another  from  another,  and  com- 
bined them  into  their  simulacrum.  They  were  not  in 
love,  after  all,  with  any  outward  mistress,  but  with 
an  inward  habit  of  prostration.  Nor  did  the  fact  that 
Newman  had  declared  the  position  indefensible,  and 
abandoned  it,  disturb  them.  They  were  not  logicians. 
They  had  not  been  drawn  to  their  position  by  argu- 
ment, nor  would  they  be  driven  from  it  by  a  syllogism. 
Their  instinct  was  wiser  than  their  acts.  The  vitality 
of  the  movement  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  was  an  honestly 
meant  attempt  to  bring  the  Church  of  England  out  of 
its  isolation,  and  into  harmony  with  the  Christian  life 
of  the  ages.  But  they  who  joined  in  it  became  so 
engrossed  with  the  task  of  re-establishing  connection 
with  the  past  that  they  fell  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
Christian  life  of  the  present.     They  adopted  an  offen- 

1  Stephens:  Life  of  Dean  Hook,  p.'JSl. 


338  THE   TROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

sive  cant.  Terms  so  old  that  they  had  become  new  and 
strange  found  the  place  of  honor  in  their  vocabulary. 
The  very  term  "catholic  "  upon  their  lips  misled.  Their 
Avhole  speech  was  strange.  Their  peculiar  distribution 
of  emphasis  among  doctrines  ;  their  manner  of  conduct- 
ing services ;  the  way  in  which  they  set  forth  the 
r  Church's  attitude  to  the  Christian  world,  — 

Time  01 

strife.  all  these  raised  a  storm  of  strife  which  lasted 

half  a  century.  Bishops  charged  against  them ;  i  and 
bishops  came  to  their  rescue.^  Bishop  Mcllvaine  con- 
troverted the  new  views  in  his  "Oxford  Theology." 
Dr.  Sparrow  dissected  them  in  his  class-room  at  the 
Virginia  Seminary.  Dr.  John  S.  Stone,  in  his  "  Chris- 
tian Sacraments,"  said  the  final  word  for  the  Evangeli- 
cal side.  The  Evangelical  Knowledge  Society  was 
founded  as  a  counteracting  propaganda. 

On  the  other  side  Dr.  Hugh  Davey  Evans  spoke  the 
most  potent  words  in  "  The  True  Catholic."  Dr.  Kip 
sent  forth  the  "  Double  Witness  of  the  Church."  Dr. 
Wainwright  defended  the  position  that  "  There  cannot 
be  a  Church  without  a  Bishop."  ^ 

In  all  this  the  good  providence,  which  had  been  work- 
ing fifty  years  to  cement  the  loose  federation  into  a  com- 
pact whole,  became  evident.  A  generation  earlier,  the 
same  strain  would  have  rent  the  Church  in  pieces.  Had 
the  State  autonomy,  which  once  existed,  still  survived, 
the  bond  of  union  would  have  snapped.      In  1844,  the 

'  Beardsley:  History  of  Clmrch  in  Connecticut,  vol.  ii.  p.  329. 
1  Johns:  Life  of  Bishop  Meade,  p.  258. 

1  Green :  Life  of  Bishop  Otey,  p.  66. 

2  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  269. 

3  Julius  H.  Ward,  in  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  619. 


THE  CATHOLIC   RENAISSANCE.  339 

matter  was  brought  formally  before  the  General  Con- 
vention.^ The  Church  was  asked  to  speak  her  mind 
upon  "  the  serious  errors  in  doctrine  which  have  within 
a  few  years  been  introduced  and  extensively  promul- 
gated by  means  of  tracts,  the  press,  and  the  puLpit." 
After  days  of  debate,  with  resolutions,  amendments, 
amendments  to  amendments,  substitutes  and  divisions, 
the  Convention  dismissed  the  subject  with  the  declara- 
tion, in  effect,  that  the  Church's  formularies  show  her 
doctrine  clearly  enough  for  any  one  to  comprehend  who 
Avants  to  comprehend ;  and  that  "  the  Church  is  not 
responsible  for  the  errors  of  individuals,  whether  they 
be  members  of  this  Church  or  not."  ^ 

Whether  the  things  in  dispute  were  really  "  errors  " 
in  doctrine  remained  undecided.  It  remains  undecided 
yet.  But  it  seemed  clear  to  most  that  their  introduc- 
tion imported  grave  danger  to  the  Church.  It  was 
feared  that  they  would  make  of  her  a  training-school  for 
Rome.  For  some  years,  that  seemed  likely.  For  two 
centuries  the  Roman  Church  had  been  a  feeble  and 
insignificant  factor  in  American  life.  With  the  deca- 
dence of  Lord  Baltimore's  colony  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  it  had  well-nigh  gone  out.  But  its  hierarchy 
had  now  been  established  for  more  than  sixty  years. 
During  these  years  it  had  grown  so  slowly  that  it  had 
attracted  little  attention.  But  when  the  tide  of  Irish 
immigration  set  in  in  1848,  Romanism  began  to  flourish. 
Anglo-Catholicism  and  Roman  Catholicism  came  in 
together.     Many  feared  that  there  Avas  a   relationship 

1  Gen.  Con.  Journal,  1844. 

2  lb. 


840  THE    PKOTEttTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUPvCH. 

between  them.  It  began  to  seem  so.^  In  England,  as 
a  direct  consequence  of  the  revived  ecclesiasticism,  such 
Converts  great  names  as  Newman,  Manning,  Oakley, 
and  perverts.  "Faber,  Wilberforce,  Palmer,  and  Ward  passed 
from  the  Church's  rolls  to  the  lists  of  Home.  In 
America,  Bishop  Ives  of  North  Carolina,  and  a  group 
of  men  of  lesser  station  but  greater  character,  followed 
in  the  same  path.  But  the  general  apostacy  for  which 
many  looked  did  not  occur.  The  facts  seemed  to  point 
to  a  different  outcome,  as  the  event  has  shown.  The 
sum  total  of  the  losses  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
in  Great  Britain  up  to  1888,  including  clergy  and  laity, 
men  and  women,  falls  below  two  thousand.  That  is  to 
sajs  an  average  of  thirty-five  persons  per  year  have  left 
the  Church  of  England  for  Rome  during  the  last  sixty 
years.  One  large  parish  church  would  hold  them  all, 
living  and  dead.  The  loss  from  the  American  Church 
has  been  much  less,  both  absolutely  and  in  proportion. 
Nor  is  it  speaking  beyond  bounds  to  say  that  for  every 
one  thus  lost,  five  have  come  from  Rome  to  the  Church. 
The  defection  was  greatest  at  its  beginning,  both  in 
numbers  and  still  more  in  quality.  Since  then  it  has 
steadily  fallen  off.^ 

How  much  of  the  revived  ecclesiasticism  which  marks 
the  century  is  to  be  referred  to  the  Oxford  Movement,  and 

1  Brand:  Life  of  Bishop  Wliittingliam,  voL  ii.  p.  353,  et  seq. 

2  Quarterly  Review,  No.  331,  p.  31,  ci  seq. 

2  Qf-  Our  Losses,  a  letter  to  the  Rev.  J.  A.  Canon  "Wenham,  by  Rev. 
G.  Bampfield. 

Annals  of  the  Catholic  Hierarchy  in  England  and  Scotland:  by 
W.  Maziere  Brady. 

Converts  to  Rome:  W.  Gordon  Gorman. 

The  Present  State  of  the  Church  in  England :  by  Lord  Bray, 

The  Catholic  Directory:  London,  1888. 


THE   CATHOLIC   RENAISSANCE.  341 

how  much  to  the  influences  at  work  antecedently  and 

outside   of  it,  cannot  be  known.     Nor  can  the  goal  to 

which  it  tends  be  clearly  seen  as  yet.     The 
Good  and  ^      ^  .    "^  .  ,  .         , 

evil  of  the       process  had   not    run   its   course   withm   the 

movement.  period  of  this  book.  It  has  not  done  so  yet. 
But  it  affected  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  pro- 
foundly, both  for  good  and  ill.  On  the  one  hand,  it 
recalled  men  from  the  selfish  pursuit  of  salvation  as  iso- 
lated individuals,  and  warned  tliem  that  even  in  religion 
"  no  man  liveth  unto  himself  alone."  It  brought  into 
clear  view  the  obscured  truth  of  the  community  of  the 
saints,  semper^  iibique,  et  ah  omnlhus.  It  imported  a 
new  reverence  into  divine  worship  and  uncovered  the 
meaning  of  Christ's  Sacraments. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  segfresrated  the  Church  Catholic 
too  sharply  from  the  common  moral  life  of  humanity. 
It  placed  the  Episcopal  Church  in  a  false  attitude 
towards  its  contemporaries.  It  produced  a  timid,  eccle- 
siastical temper.  It  tempted  men  to  say,  ''  Master,  we 
saw  one  casting  out  devils,  and  we  forbade  him  because 
he  followeth  not  with  us."  A  century  earlier,  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  Delaware,  the  Swedish  clergy  entered  the 
Church  without  question  asked  on  either  side.  While  the 
Tractarians  were  students  of  divinity,  the  Higli  Church- 
man Bishop  Ravenscroft  of  North  Carolina  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  join  with  the  Moravian  Bishop  Benade  in  the  Holy 
Eucharist.^  Without  any  change  of  law,  this  hospitable 
attitude  was  lost.     The  loss  was  great  to  all  concerned. 

Meanwhile  the  Church  proceeded  on  her  way  sadly 
distracted  with  the  strife  of  tongues. 

"^  Norton:  Life  of  Bishop  Ravenscroft,  p.  126. 


342  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CDURCH. 


CHAPTER   X. 

A    PLACE   WHERE   TWO    WAYS    MEET. 

When  tlie  catholic  nature  of  the  Church  came  to  be 
more  clearly  seen,  it  became  evident  that  the  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  Church  did  not  adequately  represent  the 
ideal.  The  isolation  in  the  Christian  world,  which  had 
been  its  fortune  for  thi-ee  hundred  years,  had  affected  it 
in  mind  and  structure.  It  was  organized  and  equipped 
as  a  sect,  and  to  do  a  sect's  work.  Its  awakened  sense 
of  catholicity  required  a  broader  outlook.  It  must 
establish  relations  with  society.  JVoblesse  oblige.  But 
the  common  people  of  America  were  indifferent  or 
antipathetic.  The  same  movement  which  had  brought 
the  Church  to  a  better  understanding  of  herself  had 
operated  to  turn  the  people  from  her.  The  ratio  of 
growth  was  steadily  declining.^  The  population  was 
advancing   with    gigantic   strides.     The    Church  crept 

tardilv    after.       The    people    neither   under- 
Falling  be-  "^  p       ,  Vni  i  ,    , 

hind  the         stood  iior  cared  for  her.      1  he  more  her  club 

popuation.  ^^^^^  loved  and  believed  in  her,  the  more 
they  grieved.  The  people  would  not  weep  to  her 
mourning  or  dance  to  her  piping.  The  fault  could  not 
be  lack  of  zeal,  for  no  class  of  men  could  be  found 
more  earnest  or  tireless   than   lier  ministers.     Twenty 

1  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  382. 


i 

?ifi 

.   . 

% 

\^ 

fe 

J 

i 

in.^' 

jtfi 

wF    H 

4 

^^ 

'  ^m''^'"^ 

^ 

W 

WM.   ATGTSTrS   MrHLi:Nr.EK(i 


A   PLACE   WHERE   TWO    WAYS   MEET.  343 

years  befoi^e,  the  Church  liad  formally  declared  that  all 
her  children  were  missionaries  by  virtue  of  their  bap- 
tism. It  had  undertaken  in  its  organized  capacity  to 
win  tlie  nation.  Who  could  be  more  zealous  than  Polk, 
more  faithful  than  Whittingham,  more  apostolic  than 
Kemper,  more  saintly  than  Otey,  or  wiser  than  De 
Lancey?  But  still  the  Church's  growth  was  not  com- 
mensurate either  with  her  own  character  or  with  the 
energy  expended.  The  controversialists  on  either  hand 
were  not  seriously  disturbed.  Their  thoughts  were 
engrossed.  But  a  class  of  men,  inspired  with  a  deep 
feeling  of  the  Church's  real  work  in  the  nation,  pon- 
dered the  matter  deeply.  Two  men  —  the  greatest  the 
American  Church  has  yet  produced  —  saw  the  situa- 
tion more  clearly  than  their  fellows.  Dr.  Muhlenberg 
A  Church  or  perceived  it  as  a  seer;  Bishop  Alonzo  Potter 
a  sect?  gaw  it  as  a  statesman.     The  Church's  theory 

was  catholic  ;  her  methods  were  denominational.  The 
head  and  the  hands  Avere  not  in  harmony,  and  the  heart 
was  torn  between  them.  Wise  men  had  discovered  the 
evil  and  tried  to  find  a  cure.  The  New  York  Review 
(1837-1842)  had  tried  to  bring  the  Church  into  touch 
with  the  thought  of  the  time.  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  in  the 
Evangelical  Catholic^  had  set  out  her  place  in  Christian 
society  with  a  wealth  of  thought  and  charm  of  spirit 
never  since  equalled.  His  voice  had  not  been  noticed 
in  the  din  of  controversy,  but  he  had  spoken  the 
thought  of  the  best  and  wisest  men  in  the  Church. 

When  the  General  Convention  met  in  1853,  the 
following  Memorial  was  laid  before  the  House  of 
Bishops :  — 


344  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

Right  Reverend  Fathers  :  —  The  undersigned,  pres- 
byters of  the  Church  of  which  you  have  the  oversight, 
The  Memo-  venture  to  approach  your  venerable  body  with  a 
rial.  sentiment  which  their  estimate  of  your  office 

in  relation  to  the  times  does  not  permit  them  to  withhold. 
In  so  doing  they  have  confidence  in  your  readiness  to 
appreciate  their  motives  and  their  aims. 

The  actual  posture  of  our  Church,  with  reference  to  tlie 
great  moral  and  social  necessities  of  the  day,  presents  to 
the  minds  of  the  undersigned  a  subject  of  grave  and  anxious 
thought.  Did  they  suppose  that  this  was  confined  to  them- 
selves they  would  not  feel  warranted  in  submitting  it  to 
your  attention;  but  they  believe  it  to  be  participated  in 
by  many  of  their  brethren,  who  may  not  havG  seen  the 
expediency  of  declaring  their  views,  or  at  least  a  mature 
season  for  such  a  course. 

The  divided  and  distracted  state  of  our  American  Prot- 
estant Christianity ;  the  new  and  subtle  forms  of  unbelief, 
adapting  themselves  with  fatal  success  to  the  spirit  of  the 
age  ;  the  consolidated  forces  of  Romanism,  bearing  Avith 
renewed  skill  ■  and  activity  against  the  Protestant  faith  : 
and,  as  more  or  less  the  consequence  of  these,  the  utter 
ignorance  of  the  Gospel  among  so  large  a  portion  of  the 
lower  classes  of  our  population,  making  a  heathen  world  in 
our  midst ;  are  among  the  considerations  which  induce 
your  memorialists  to  present  the  inquiry  whether  the 
period  has  not  arrived  for  the  adoption  of  measures,  to 
meet  these  exigencies  of  the  times,  more  comprehensive  than 
any  yet  provided  for  by  our  present  ecclesiastical  system ; 
In  other  words,  whether  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
with  only  her  present  canonical  means  and  appliances,  her 
fixed  and  invariable  modes  of  public  worship,  her  tradi- 
tional customs   and  usages,  is   competent  to  the  work  of 


A   PLACE   WHERE   TWO   WAYS   MEET.  345 

preaching  and  dispensing  the  Gospel  to  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men,  and  so,  adeqnate  to  do  the  work  of  the  Lord 
in  this  land  and  in  this  age  ?     This  question,  your  peti- 
tioners for  their  own  part,  and  in  consonance  with  many 
thoughtful  minds  among  us,  believe  must  be  answered  in 
the  negative.     Their  memorial  proceeds  on  the  assumption 
that  our  Church,  confined  to  the  exercises  of  her  present 
system,  is  not  sufficient  to  the  great  purposes  above  men- 
tioned ;  that  a  wider  door  must  be  opened  for  the  admission 
to  the  Gospel  ministry  than  that  through  which  her  candi- 
dates for  holy  orders  are  now  obliged  to  enter.     Besides 
such  candidates  among  her  own  members,  it  is  believed 
that  men  can  be  found  among  the  other  bodies  of  Christians 
around  ns,  who  would  gladly  receive  ordination  at  your 
hands,  could  they  obtain  it  without  that  entire  surrender, 
which  would  now  be  required  of  them,  of  all  the  liberty  in 
public  worship  to  which  they  have  been  accustomed ;  men, 
who  could  not  bring  themselves  to  conform  in  all  particu- 
lars to  our  prescriptions  and  customs,  but  yet  sound  in  the 
faith,  and  who,  having  the  gifts  of  preachers  and  pastors, 
would  be  able   ministers  of   the   New  Testament.     With 
deference   it  is  asked,   ought    such   an  accession   to  your 
means  in  executing  your  high  commission,   "Go  into  all 
the  world,  and  preach  the   Gospel  to  every  creature,"  be 
refused,  for  the  sake  of  conformity  in  matters  recognized 
in  the  preface  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  as  unessen- 
tials  ?     Dare  we  pray  the  Lord  of  harvests  to  send  forth 
laborers  into  the  harvest,  while  Ave  reject  all  laborers  but 
those  of  one  peculiar  type  ?     The  extension  of  orders  to 
the  class  of  men  contemplated  (with  whatever  safeguards, 
not  infringing  on  evangelical  freedom,  which  your  wisdom 
might  deem  expedient),  appears  to  your  petitioners  to  be  a 
subject  supremely  worthy  of  your  deliberations. 


346  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

In  addition  to  the  prospect  of  the  immediate  good  which 
would  thus  be  opened,  an  important  step  woukl  be  taken 
towards  the  effecting  of  a  Church  unity  in  the  Protestant 
Christendom  of  our  land.  To  become  a  central  bond  of 
union  among  Christians,  who,  though  differing  in  name, 
yet  hold  to  the  one  Faith,  the  one  Lord,  the  one  Baptism ; 
and,  who  need  only  such  a  bond  to  be  drawn  together  in 
closer  and  more  primitive  fellowship,  is  here  believed  to 
be  the  peculiar  province  and  high  privilege  of  your  vener- 
able body  as  a  college  of  Catholic  and  Ajiosfolic  Bishops  as 
such . 

This  leads  your  petitioners  to  declare  the  ultimate  design 
of  their  memorial  ;  which  is  to  submit  the  practicability, 
under  your  auspices,  of  some  ecclesiastical  system,  broader 
and  more  comprehensive  than  that  which  you  now  admin- 
ister, surrounding  and  including  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  as  it  now  is,  leaving  that  church  untouched,  identi- 
cal with  that  church  in  all  its  great  principles,  yet  provid- 
ing for  as  much  freedom  in  opinion,  discipline,  and  worship, 
as  is  compatible  with  the  essential  faith  and  order  of  the 
Gospel.  To  define  and  act  upon  such  a  system,  it  is  be- 
lieved, must  sooner  or  later  be  the  work  of  an  American 
Catholic  Episcopate. 

In  justice  to  themselves,  on  this  occasion,  your  memo- 
rialists beg  leave  to  remark  that,  although  aware  that  the 
foregoing  views  are  not  confined  to  their  own  small  number, 
they  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  any  other  parties  con- 
template a  public  expression  of  them,  like  the  present. 
Having  therefore  undertaken  it,  they  trust  that  they  have 
not  laid  themselves  open  to  the  charge  of  unwarrantable 
intrusion.  They  find  their  warrant  in  the  prayer  now 
offered  up  by  all  congregations,  "  that  the  comfortable 
Gospel  of  Christ  may  be  truly  preached,  truly  received, 


A   PLACE   WHERE   TWO   WAYS   MEET.  347 

and  truly  followed  in  all  places,  to  the  breaking  down  the 
kingdom  of  Sin,  Satan,  and  Death."  Convinced  that,  for 
the  attainment  of  these  blessed  ends,  there  must  be  some 
greater  concert  of  action  among  Protestant  Christians  than 
any  which  yet  exists,  and  believing  that  with  you,  Right 
Reverend  Fathers,  it  rests  to  take  the  first  measures  tend- 
ing thereto,  we  could  do  no  less  than  humbly  submit  this 
memorial  to  such  consideration  as  in  }our  wisdom  you  may 
see  fit  to  give  it. 

Assuring  you,  Right  Reverend  Fathers,  of  our  dutiful 
veneration  and  esteem, 

We  are,  most  respectfully. 

Your  Brethren  and  Servants  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ : 

W.  A.  Muhlenberg,  C.  F.  Ckuse, 

Philip  Berry,  Edwin  Harwood, 

G.  T.  Bedell,  Henky  Gregory, 

Alex.  H.  Vinton,  ]\I.  A.  De Wolfe  Howe, 

S.  H.  Turner,  S.  R.  Johnson, 

C.  W.  Andrews.  F.  E.  Lawrence, 
and  others. 

Concurring  in  the  main  purport  of  the  memorial,  but  not 
able  to  subscribe  to  all  its  details,  the  following  names 
were  subscribed  : 

John  Henry  Hobart,         A.  Cleveland  Coxe, 
E.  Y.  HiGBEE,  Francis  Vinton, 

Isaac  G.  Hubbard,  and  others. 

What  the  Memorialists  proposed  ^vas  at  once  simple 
and  revolutionary-  They  meant,  in  good  faith,  to  put 
the  catholic  theory  of  the  Church  to  tlie  ezperimentum 
crueis.     "  The  great  catliolic  idea  of  the  Church  may  be 


348  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

fully  developed  by  more  thoroughly  adapting  it  to  all 
the  wants  of  the  country  and  the  times."  ^    Their  object- 
ive  point   was    the    emancipation    of   the    Episcopate,^ 
Their  action  had  other  aims  as  well,  but  this 

Emancipa- 
tion of  was  the  chief.     The  Episcopate  was  the  dif- 

is  ops.  ferentiate  of  the  Church  in  America.  In 
Rome  it  was  in  subjection  to  the  Pope.  In  England  it 
was  fettered  by  the  State.  Here  it  was  tied  by  conven- 
tional rules,  so  that  it  was  powerless  to  act  beyond  the 
borders  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  sect,  and  even 
within  them  was  checked  at  every  turn.  Protestants 
mioht  stretch  out  their  hands  for  it  in  vain.  It  must 
be  refused  unless  they  would  consent  to  take  with  it  all 
the  peculiarities  of  the  sect  which  possessed  it.  This, 
the  Memorialists  maintained,  was  uncatholic.  They 
saw,  farther,  that  if  the  Episcopate  should  continue  to 
be  deprived  of  its  original  powers,  and  reduced  to  an 
oflfice  of  pett}^  routine,  it  would  soon  come  to  be  filled 
by  petty  men.  They  believed  that  to  claim  for  the 
office  a  divine  grace,  and  then  to  bind  it  into  helpless- 
ness from  fear  of  the  human  infirmities  of  the  men  who 
filled  it,  was  but  solemn  trifling. 

In  the  second  place,  they  asserted  that  the  Liturgy ,3 
which  they  themselves  delighted  in,  was  a  stumbling- 

(.   block    to    thousands,  who,  but   for   it,  would 
Loosening  of  '  ' 

rubrics.  accept  the  essentials  of  the  Church  ;  that  the 

principle  of  compulsory  uniformity  upon  which  the 
Church  was  acting,  was  not  only  uncatholic  but  foolish  ; 

1  Resolution  of  Rhode  Island  Diocese,  1856. 

2  Evangelical  Catholic  Papers,  p.  181. 

3  lb.,  p.  163,  et  seq. 


A   PLACE   WHERE   TWO   WAYS   MEET.  349' 

that  the  Prayer-Book  was  constructed  for  the  use  of 
well-ordered  and  well-trained  parishes,  whereas  the 
Church's  work  would  be,  for  many  a  day  to  come, 
among  those  whose  customs  and  prejudices  rendered 
it  ungrateful  to  them;  that  as  "good  wine  needs  no 
bush,"  the  Liturgy  might  be  trusted  to  make  its  own 
way  into  general  use  by  its  own  intrinsic  excellence. 

A  third  purpose  was  to  restore   a  disused  force  by 

reviving  the  lower  order  of  the  ministry.     There  were 

then  but  thirty-seven  deacons  in  the  Church; 

Revival  of 

theDiaco-  there  should,  and  might  readily  have  been, 
five  thousand.  The  ministry  was  practically 
closed  against  all  applicants  save  a  small  class  of  men, 
with  peculiar  qualifications,  hard  to  attain,  and  not 
guaranteeing  efficiency  when  attained.  The  various 
sections  of  the  broad  vineyard  demanded  laborers  of 
various  sorts.  The  masses  of  the  people  could  not  be 
touched  but  by  men  from  among  themselves.  A  dea- 
con's work  required  character  rather  than  education,^ 
and  tent-makers  might  yet  work  with  their  own  hands, 
not  being  chargeable  to  any  man,  and  still  be  apostolic. 
Above  all,  they  lamented  that  the  door  was  barred 
against  the  ministers  of  the  Protestant  woild.  One  of 
these  could  enter  only  "by  painful  steps  and  slow." 
While  waiting  the  long  period  of  probation,  —  a  proba- 
tion not  required  of  a  Roman  priest  of  far  inferior  char- 
acter, —  he  became  separated  from  his  own  people,  so 
that  he  must  come  alone  and  a  strano-er. 

The    ultimate    object   toward   which   all    their   aims 

'  Howe:  Memoirs  of  Bishop  Alonzo  Potter,  p.  185. 


350  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUKCH. 

pointed  was  the  Unity  of  Protestant  Christendom.^ 
The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  standing  as  the  repre- 
Church  sentative  of  Catholicity  in  America,  had  her 

""it-y-  task   assigned   by   God.      She  was    to   keep 

open  communication  with  the  past.  She  was  to  be  the 
tertium  quid  to  produce  union  in  the  present. 

But  to  do  this  last  she  must  move  freely  among  the 
broken  mass.  This,  the  Memorialists  contended,  she 
could  not  do  under  her  present  self-imposed  limitations. 

The  Memorial  was  received  by  the  Convention  with 
the  consideration  which  the  names  of  its  signers  could 
not  but  secure.  It  was  referred  to  a  committee  com- 
posed of  Bishops  Otey,  Doane,  Alonzo  Potter,  Burgess, 
Williams,  and  Wainwright.^  They  were  instructed  to 
report  to  the  next  Convention.  Bishop  Alonzo  Pot- 
ter took  charge  of  the  measure,  became  its  advocate, 
counsellor,  and  historian  .^  It  at  once  arrested  the 
attention  of  the  whole  Church.  For  several  }'ears  little 
else  was  thought  or  spoken  of.  Especially  among  the 
j^ounger  clergy  and  laymen  did  it  commend  itself.^ 
Diocesan  conventions  discussed  it,  and  passed  resolu- 
tions for  or  against  its  proposals.'^  Church  newspapers 
advocated  or  denounced  it.  Sermons,  pamphlets,  maga- 
zine articles,  and  books  were  written  about  it.  The 
committee  which  had  it  in  charge  circulated  a  list  of 
questions  concerning  it,  to  which  they  solicited  replies. 

1  Evangelical  Catholic  Papers,  p.  322. 

2  Memorial  Papers:  with  an  introduction  by  Right  Rev.  Alonza 
Potter,  Philadelphia,  1857,  p.  36. 

3  Memorial  Papers. 
*  lb.,  p.  vii. 

s  Green:  Life  of  Bishop  Otey,  p.  60. 


A   PLACE   WHERE   TWO   WAYS   MEET.  351 

These  questions  show  that  the  members  of  the  commit- 
tee either  but  dimly  appreciated  its  import,  or  else  did 
not  care  to  consider  the  fundamental  problems  at  issue. 
They  relate  for  the  most  part  to  details  of  subordinate 
importance. 1  The  replies  they  received  are  directed 
some  to  one  and  some  to  another  of  the  queries,  and 
some  to  the  principles  involved.^ 

Bishop  Doane  of  New  Jersey,  in  his  reply,  falls  foul 
of  Sunday-schools,  as  being  destructive  of  home  training 
Divers  ^^  children,  advocates  parish  schools  wherein 

opinions.  the  youtli  of  the  country  may  be  taught  in 
the  spirit  of  the  Church  ;  and  recommends  that  schools 
of  theology  be  multiplied  and  localized  in  various  sec- 
tions of  the  country,  so  that  the  ministry  may  be  more 
in  touch  with  the  people  whom  it  is  called  to  serve. 

Bishop  Potter  of  Pennsylvania  alone  goes  to  the  root 
of  the  matter.  He  advises  :  to  leave  to  each  diocese  the 
power  to  fix  the  terms  of  admission  to  its  own  ministry, 
as  best  knowing  its  own  needs  ;  to  receive  Protestant 
ministers  whenever  they  are  ready  and  fit  to  come,  the 
diocesan  authorities  passing  upon  each  case  as  it  arises; 
to  exploit  the  plan  of  an  unlearned  diaconate  as  pro- 
posed in  1853,  allowing  each  diocese  to  receive  its  own, 
and  not  compelling  any  other  diocese  to  accept  them 
for  duty ;  leave  congregations  which  are  ready  to  re- 
ceive an  episcopally  ordained  minister  to  use  the 
Liturgy  or  not  as  they  see  fit, — as  Bishop  Kemper 
had  so  wisely  done  with  the  Swedish  and  Norwegian 


^  Memorial  Papers,  pp.  37^0. 

2  T!ie  substance  of  the  answers  is  in  all  cases  condensed  from  the  papers 
edited  and  published  by  Bishop  Potter  as  Memorial  Papers. 


352  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

Lutherans  in  Wisconsin  ;  abandon  the  idea  of  enforced 
uniformity  in  worship,  as  uncatholic  and  disastrous 
wherever  it  has  been  attempted. 

Bishop  Burgess  of  Maine  recommends  to  revise  the 
Liturgy  so  as  to  make  it  more  fit,  and,  having  done  so, 
exact  its  use  ;  when  it  has  been  used  in  any  case,  allow 
supplementary  extemporary  prayers. 

Bishop  Williams  of  Connecticut  advises  district  visit- 
ing ;  that  missionary  priests  are  indeed  needed,  but 
must  be  chosen  according  to  a  universal  standard,  and 
sent  under  diocesan  control.  As  to  unlearned  deacons, 
he  doubts,  but  if  there  should  be  such,  they  must  with- 
draw from  secular  employment.  He  had  "  j^repared 
some  further  remarks  on  the  general  subject  of  Chris- 
tian unity,  designed  to  show  that  restraints,  doctrinal 
and  other,  under  which  we  are  placed,  are  not  mere 
accidents,  and  indications  of  sectarianism,  taken  up  at 
will,  but  things  rendered  necessary  by  the  abnormal 
condition  of  Christendom,  and  forming  part  and  parcel 
of  our  true  Catholicity,"  —  but  omits  them  for  lack  of 
space. 

Bishop  Meade  of  Virginia  believes  that  the  services 
are  too  long ;  that  the  minister  should  be  allowed  to 
select  the  i)salms ;  that  there  sliould  be  liberty  to  omit 
the  term  "  regenerate  "  in  baptism. 

Bishop  Polk  replies  that  among  the  people  of  the 
Southwest  the  Liturgy  is  a  distinct  hindrance  ;  that  it 
is  too  long,  and  the  rubrics  too  rigid ;  that  it  should  be 
left  more  to  the  discretion  of  the  minister ;  that  many 
of  his  people  cannot  read  at  all ;  that  a  learned  and  an 
unlearned  ministry  are  both  needed. 


A   PLACE   WHERE   TWO   WAYS   MEET.  353 

Bishop  Freeman  was  opposed  to  the  whole  agitation  ; 
'•'  would  never  consent  to  touch  in  the  minutest  par- 
ticular the  integrity  of  the  Liturgy  ;  "  would  allow  no 
"relaxation  whatever  in  the  conditions  of  admitting 
other  ministers;  —  they  do  not  want  to  come  any  way." 

Bishop  Upfold  denies  the  premises ;  the  Church  has, 
all  things  considered,  grown  wonderfully ;  would  not 
consent  to  touch  the  Liturgy  ;  would  make  the  terms 
of  admission  for  other  ministers  harder  than  they  are. 

Bishop  Scott  denies  the  premises ;  would  allow  no 
relaxation  even  if  they  were  true. 

Dr.  Bowman  thinks  the  memorialists  should  be  con- 
tent with  the  unlearned  diaconate. 

Dr.  Coxe  recommends  a  primer  where  the  Liturgy 
cannot  be  used  ;  and  calls  attention  to  the  Moravian 
Church  as  a  factor  in  the  problem  of  unity. 

Dr.  Craik  thinks  that  the  door  towards  Protestantism 
is  too  wide  open  already ;  better  that  some  within  were 
shut  outside. 

Dr.  Francis  Vinton  believes  that  the  whole  jurisdic- 
tion in  the  province  of  ordination  should  be  left  with 
the  bishop,  to  whom  it  inherently  belongs ;  that  the 
General  Convention  had  acted  vltra  vires  in  its  legisla- 
tion upon  the  matter ;  that  the  bishop  should  ordain  fit 
men,  and  then  be  only  too  glad  to  have  them  serve 
Presbyterian  or  other  congregations  if  they  had  the 
chance,  without  any  question  of  the  use  of  the  Liturgy. 

A  Presbyterian  divine  says  the  safety  of  the  sects 
(sic)  depends  upon  the  continued  rigidity  of  the  Church  ; 
if  that  should  be  abandoned,  their  existence  would  be 
endangered. 


354  THE  PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

A  Congregational  divine  indorses  the  position  of  the 
memorialists  as  being  in  the  general  interest  of  American 
Christianity. 

A  Baptist  divine  asserts  that  if  the  Church  could 
but  find  a  way  to  reach  the  masses  she  could  effect 
more  than  all  others. 

A  German  Reformed  divine  states  that  they  also  are 
preparing  a  Liturgy,  and  would  gladly  draw  nearer  to 
the  Church. 

A  Methodist  divine  answers  that  the  Church  possesses 
those  things  which  are  abiding,  and  the  Methodists 
those  which  are  discretionary  ;  that  each  might  help 
the  other. 

The  Committee,  having  thus  gathered  opinions  from 
those  whom  they  thought  best  qualified  to  speak,  and 
having  listened  to  the  discussion  which  for  three  years 
had  filled  the  air,  reported  to  the  General  Convention  of 
A  true  bill  1^^^'  ^^^*  ^^^^  statements  of  the  Memorialists 
found.  were  true ;  that  '■'■  the  Church  is  by  no  means 

keeping  pace  with  the  population ;  "  that  the  "  growth 
in  the  last  half  century  furnishes  matter  of  deep  humili- 
ation and  shame  ;  "  that  the  Liturgy  is  not  suited  to  all 
the  work  required  of  it;  that  both  diocesan  conven- 
tions and  representative  men  agree  as  to  the  facts  of 
the  case ;  that  there  is  a  wide-spread  desire  for  a  more 
efficient  policy. 

In  the  way  of  cure,  they  recommend  extemporaneous 
preaching  ;  lay  work  ;  sisterhoods  ;  more  frequent  serv- 
ices ;  a  more  hospitable  bearing  toward  other  churches ; 
a  formal  declaration  by  the  House  of  l^ishops  that 
Morning    Prayer,    Litany,    and    Holy   Communion    are 


A   PLACE   WHERE   TWO   WAYS   MEET.  355 

distinct  services,  and  need  not  be  said  together;  a 
standing  committee  of  five  bishops  to  receive  proposals 
concerning  Christian  unity ;  to  allow  diocesan  bishops 
the  power  to  set  forth  services  for  special  occasions. 

The  lecommendations  were  all  adopted,  —  and  the 
situation  remained  unchanged.  The  action  failed  to 
touch  the  issue.  Dr.  Muhlenberg  wrote,  "  It  is  the 
genius  of  Catholicity  now  knocking  at  the  Church's 
doors.  Let  her  refuse  to  open.  Let  her,  if  she  will, 
make  them  faster  still,  with  new  bolts  and  bars,  and 
then  take  her  rest,  to  dream  a  wilder  dream  than  any  of 
the  Memorial :  of  becoming  the  Catholic  Church  of 
these  United  States."  ^ 

Twenty  years  later.  Dr.  Washburn  declared  that 
"  had  the  Memorial  prevailed,  we  should  have  been 
spared  the  two  worst  misfortunes  which  have  since 
befallen  us.  Tlie  conscientious  men  of  ritualistic  type, 
instead  of  defying  law  for  chasubles  and  candles,  would 
have  thrown  their  devotion  into  noble  work ;  and  the 
conscientious  men  who  have  only  added  another  Re- 
formed Episcopal  fragment  to  the  atoms  floating  in 
A  fatal  Christian    space  would    have    remained   con- 

choice,  tent  with  just  freedom."  2     The  Church  had 

the  choice  set  before  her  to  be  Catliolic  or  to  be  sec- 
tarian. She  chose  the  latter.  She  exalted  her  customs 
above  her  principles.  The  choice  threw  lier  back  more 
than  a  generation. 

Men  being  what  they  are,  no  other  choice  could  well 
have  been  expected.     The   Lower  House   had  already 

1  Evangelical  Catliolic  Papers,  p.  325, 

2  Ayres:  Life  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  p.  273. 


356  THE   PROTESTANT   EnSCOPAL   rHURCH. 

begun  to  think  of  itself  as  the  Church.  It  was  jealous 
of  Episcopal  prerogative,  and  out  of  touch  with  the 
people.  While  the  Church  remained  a  federation  of 
States  neither  of  these  mistakes  was  possible.  Each  del- 
egation then  instinctively  sought  to  know  and  do  the 
will  of  its  own  people.  That  allegiance  had  been  insen- 
sibly withdrawn  from  the  local  church  and  given  to  the 
general  body.  The  people  of  the  dioceses  had  come  to 
be  the  constituencies  ;  but  the  representation  had  not 
yet  been  apportioned  to  their  numbers.  The  General 
Convention  grew  remote.  The  time  came  when  its 
deliverances  were  little  heeded.  It  came  to  have  a  life 
of  its  own,  apart  from  the  common  life  of  the  Church. 
It  feared  anything  which  might  derange  that  life.  A 
catholic  policy  would  surely  have  done  so. 
Genera°i  Con-  Party  leaders  in  it  feared  what  might  prove 
vontion.  ^^  i^g  ^^^  opponent's  advantage.     Men  were 

not  willing  to  intrust  others  with  a  liberty  which  they 
would  have  welcomed  for  themselves.  Timidity,  mis- 
called conservatism,  shrank  from  change.  As  always, 
men  whose  vision  is  acute  within  a  narrow  range  re- 
fused to  trust  the  sight  of  others  who  were  able  to  see 
the  end.  The  Church  acquiesced  in  the  decision,  as  it 
would  have  done  in  its  opposite.  But  the  opportunity 
had  been  lost.  The  Church  had  not  been  able  to  see 
the  things  which  belonged  to  her  peace. 

The  canon  allowing  an  unlearned  diaconate  was 
passed ;  but  it  proved  an  empty  gain.i  j^  was  an  in- 
strument which  would  not  operate  in  the  machinery  of 
wliich  it  formed  a  part.     It  was  discredited  from  the 

•  Howe:  Memoirs  of  Bishop  Aloiizo  Potter,  p.  18G, 


A   PLACE   WHERE   TWO    WAYS   MEET.  357 

start.  Some  bishops  would  not  use  it  when  they  could; 
others  could  not  when  they  would.  Its  necessity  was 
presently  obscured  by  the  makeshift  of  "  licensed  lay 
readers,"  —  as  if  any  license  were  needed  for  a  layman 
to  do  his  ordinary  duty. 

It  remained  for  another  generation  of  men,  spiritual 
sons  of  the  Memorialists,  to  take  up  again  the  work  of 
Liturgical  revision  and  Christian  Unity.  Dr.  Muhlen- 
berg retired  to  his  schools,  his  hospitals,  his  free  church. 
Bishop  Potter  took  up  again  liis  labor  of  organizing  the 
religious  life,  leading  the  thought,  and  caring  for  the 
poor  of  his  great  diocese.  Their  associates  stood  in 
their  own  lots,  exemplifying  catholicity  in  life  and  work. 
The  Church  held  on  her  narrow  way.  Within  the 
limits  she  had  fixed  for  lierself,  her  life  was  active,  and, 
judged  by  her  own  standard,  successful.  The  general 
religious  movement  of  the  land  went  on  its  course,  little 
affected  by  her.  But  she  was  not  unmindful  of  the 
spiritual  needs  of  her  own  children,  either  in  the  old 
States  or  in  the  far  West. 

The  same  Convention  which  received  the  Memorial 

sent  two  bishops  to  the  Pacific  Coast.     California  was 

then  four  months'   iourney  from  New  York. 

Prog^ress  in  j  j 

a  narrow  Population  was  pouring  into  it  from  all  four 
^^   "  quarters  of  the  globe.     Long  lines  of  "prairie 

schooners"  were  winding  their  tedious  way  across  the 
plains  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  through  the  passes  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  down  the  slopes  of  the  Sierras, 
carrying  the  seekers  after  gold.  Another  stream  was 
struggling  through  the  swamps  and  miasmas  of  "the 
Isthmus,"  and   still   another  battling  its  stormy  path 


358  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CUUKCH. 

"around  the  Horn,"  to  the  same  El  Dorado.  Its  rough, 
turbulent,  picturesque  life  was  at  its  height.  Among 
Church  in  ^^^^  earliest  comers  were  clergy  of  the  Church. 
California-  xhe  Rev.  Dr.  Ver  jNlehr  was  among  the 
"  forty-niners."  He  gathered  a  little  congregation,  and 
held  services  in  a  rude  San  P'rancisco  shanty.  Things 
moved  rapidly  there.  In  1850  the  first  "Convention 
of  the  Church  in  California  "  was  held  in  San  Francisco, 
and  six  clergy  were  present.  It  did  not  regard  itself  as 
a  part  of  the  Church  in  the  United  States.  It  was  an 
independent  organization,  and  looked  at  first  to  the 
Greek  Church  for  the  Episcopate.^  It  was  far  nearer, 
geographically,  to  the  Greek  Church  in  Alaska  than  to 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  States.  But 
when  three  years  more  had  passed,  the  swift  changes  of 
population  which  marked  the  time  and  place  had  left 
the  Church  almost  extinct.  Some  of  the  cleigy  were 
sick,  some  dead,  some  moved  away,  and  some  smitten 
with  the  "  gold  fever."  In  1853  the  General  Conven- 
tion chose  the  Rev.  Dr.  Kip  as  bishop,  and  sent  him  to 
build  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  California. 

In  1851  the  Board  of  Missions  sent  the  Rev.  William 
Richmond  to  Oregon.  When  he  arrived,  he  found  St. 
Church  in  iMichael  Fackler,  a  faithful  priest  from  Mis- 
Oregon,  souri,  living  and  working  in  Willamette  Val- 
ley. In  1853,  three  clergy  and  seven  laymen  met  at 
Oregon  City  and  organized  the  Church  in  Oregon. 
The  same  3'ear,  the  General  Convention  chose  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Thomas  Fielding  Scott  to  be  its  bishop. 

Iowa,  Texas,  Minnesota,  and    Arkansas    were,  a   few 

1  Bishop  Kip,  in  Periy:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  314. 


A   PliACE   WHERE   TWO   WAYS   MEET.  359 

years  later,  detached  from  the   great  Missionary  Juris- 
dictions, and  placed  under  bishops  of  their  own. 

But  the  thought  and  energy  of  the  time  were  being 
more  and  more  withdrawn  from  the  affairs  of  the 
Church,  and  absorbed  in  the  condition  of  the  nation. 
The  mutterings  of  the  coming  storm  of  war  were 
already  heard.  It  was  possible  that  the  American 
(];hurch  might  soon  be  broken  up  together  with  the 
nation  in  which  it  dwelt. 


360  THE   PKOTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER   XL 

IN    WAR   TIME. 

The   same    institution   whose    presence    in    America 

ultimately  caused   secession    had   long    before    caused 

ecclesiastical    divisions.     Tiie    "  great   seces- 

Churches"*"      sion  "  in  1845  had  split  the  Methodist  Church 

upon  slavery,  j^^  ^^^^      q^^^  ^f  j^^  bishops  had  been  found 

to  be  "  an  owner  of  slaves,  by  marriage."  ^  He  was 
required  to  purge  himself  of  his  fault  or  lay  down  his 
office.  The  Southern  delegi^tes  stood  by  him,  and  the 
Methodist  Church  South  was  organized. 

In  1857  the  "New  School  Presbyterian  Church" 
took  similar  ground  in  an  expression  of  opinion  upon 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  whereupon  several  Southern 
presbyteries  Avithdrew  from  their  connection,  and 
became  the  nucleus  around  which  the  Southern  Pres- 
byterian Church  was  built  in  1861.^ 

Among  the  Baptists,  and  all  denominations  of  Con- 
gregational type,  there  had  been,  of  course,  no  formal 
separation,  for  there  had  never  been  any  organic  union, 
but  their  formal  "fellowship"  had  long  stopped  at 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line. 

The  Church  of  Rome  had  never  divided  upon  the 
question  for   quite   a   different  reason.     Her  unity  has 

'  Stevens:  American  Metliudisni,  pp.  525-6. 
2  Schaff-Herzog  Encycl.,  p.  1908. 


IN   WAR   TIME.  361 

nothing  to  do  witli  the  unity  of  national  life,  but  is 
centred  in  a  foreign  potentate.  But  all  American 
churches,  except  the  Protestant  Episcopal,  had  ranged 
themselves  toward  the  same  question  of  negro  slavery, 
which  was  working  to  a  settlement  in  the  national  life. 

These  foregone  ecclesiastical  divisions  had  much  to 
do  with  making  political  separation  i)Ossible.^  '^hey 
had  familiarized  people's  minds  witli  the  idea.  They 
had  withdrawn  members  of  the  same  spiritual  family  so 
far  away  from  each  other  that  mutual  understanding 
became  impossible. 

In  the  Episcopal  Church  this  was  not  the  case.  Its 
members  North  and  South  were  in  more  friendly  rela- 
tion, and  had  a  better  comprehension  of  each 

Episcopal 

Church  not  other's  thought  upon  the  fundamental  ques- 
tion, than  had  the  members  of  any  other 
organization,  religious  or  secular.  The  Church  had 
never  called  slave-holding  a  sin.  It  had  never  made  it 
a  matter  of  discipline.  It  saw  more  clearly  than  did 
the  divided  denominations  what  were  the  real  difficul- 
ties involved  in  its  settlement.  At  the  organization  of 
the  Church,  its  members  felt  about  the  matter  as  did 
the  great  mass  of  the  Christian  people  of  their  time. 
Slavery  was  then  common  to  all  the  colonies.  It  was 
accepted  as  part  of  the  constitution  of  things.  Its  prac- 
tical evils  were  evident  to  many,  but  in  itself  it  was 
generally  accepted  to  be  warranted  by  Scripture  and 
ancient  custom.  But  a  sentiment  against  it  was  even 
then  rising.  The  social  and  political  ills  attached  to  the 
institution    we^e    becoming   apparent.      There   was    an 

1  Johns:  Life  of  Bishop  Meade,  pp.  492,  494. 


562  THE  PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

instinct  that  it  was  antagonistic  to  the  fundamental 
conception  of  American  political  life.  This  sentiment 
gained  ground  slowly,  but  surely,  in  the  Northern  States. 
As  it  spread  it  produced  gradual  emancipation.  But 
this  had  taken  effect  so  recently  in  many  Northern  States 
that  the  old  way  of  regarding  slavery,  in  theory,  had  not 
been  changed.  It  had  been  seen  to  be  practicably  un- 
desirable, but  not  morally  indefensible.  The  great  mass 
of  Northern  people  did  not  think  themselves 

General  sen- 
timent of  the    to  be  partakers  of  other  men's  sins  by  living 

in  a  government  which  permitted  it  within 
its  borders.  They  did  not  forget  that  they  had  lately 
shared  the  sin,  if  it  were  one.  So  late  as  1850  there 
were  still  slaves  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Penn- 
sylvania.^ In  1860  there  were  still  living  in  the  prime 
of  life  colored  men  who  had  been  born  bondsmen  in 
the  Northern  States.  But  for  a  generation  the  relation 
of  the  general  government  toward  slavery  had  been  the 
burning  question.  It  had  engaged  men's  thoughts  and 
emotions  far  more  deeply  than  any  issue  that  has  con- 
fronted them,  before  or  since.  The  Church  was  blamed 
for  her  attitude.  Some  of  her  own  children  thought 
and  spoke  of  her  with  shame.  Tliey  begged  her  to  bear 
her  testimony  against  this  "  sum  of  all  villanies ; "  to 
break  out  of  this  "  league  with  death  and  covenant 
The  Church  '^'v^th  hell."  The  great  Bishop  Wilberforce 
blamed.  exclaims    with    horror    that    "•  the    Spirit    of 

Missions,  edited  with  the  sanction  of  the  Church,  and 
under  the  eye  of  the  Bishop  of  New  York,  proposes  to 

1  Williams:  History  of  the   Negro  Race  in   America,  vol.  ii.  p.  99. 
This  history,  written  by  a  negro,  a  member  of  the  Ohio  Legislature,  is 
valuable  in  many  regards. 


IN   WAR   TIME.  36 o 

endow  a  mission  school  in  Louisiana  with  a  plantation 
to  be  worked  by  slaves."  ^  Churchmen  offered  no  pro- 
test when  the  Bishop  of  Georgia  proposed  to  maintain 
the  "  Montpelier  Institute  "  by  slave  labor,  or  when  the 
Bishop  of  South  Carolina  denounced  the  "malignant 
philanthropy  of  abolition."  With  the  Abolitionists  as  a 
party,  the  Church  had  but  little  sympathy.  The  intem- 
perance of  their  denuncifitions,  their  incapacity  to  under- 
stand the  facts,  their  close  affiliation  with  infidelity,^  all 
offended  her.  Church  people  held  rather  with  President 
Lincoln.  They  saw  the  evils  of  the  institution,  and 
looked  for  its  abolition,  but  they  saw  also  how  closely  it 
was  interwoven  with  the  structure  of  society,  and  were 
not  ready  for  heroic  surgery .^  The  Church  preserved 
the  same  policy  toward  slavery  that  she  has  always  done 
toward  intemperance  and  poverty.  They  are  evils  to 
be  eradicated  by  strengthening  the  constitutio?)al  life, 
rather  than  by  the  exhibition  of  specifics. 

The  manner  of  life  in  the  South  was  more  familiar  to 
her  than  it  was  to  any  other  religious  body.  There 
Mutual  com^  had  been  no  separation  or  cessation  of  inter- 
prehension,  course.  Every  three  years  the  representa- 
tives of  .all  the  dioceses  sat  together  for  weeks  in 
Geneial  Convention.  The  bishops.  North  and  South, 
were  in  constant  correspondence,  iNIeade  with  MTlvaine, 

I  Wilberforoe:  History  of  tlie  American  Church,  p.  427. 

The  writer  has  but  .seldom  referred  to  Bishop  \Vilberforce"s  History 
It  is  not  of  great  value.  It  bears  the  mark  of  the  haste  with  which  it 
was  prepared,  and  the  scantiness  of  the  authorities  at  its  author's  com- 
mand.    See  Life  of  Bishop  Wilberforce,  p.  87. 

■-  Caswall:  American  Church  and  Union,  p.  278. 

3  Nicolay  and  Hay:  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  loc. 

3  Raymond:  Life  and  State  Papers  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  759. 


364  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

Whittingham  with  Hopkins. ^  The  Bishops  of  Virginia, 
Ohio,  Tennessee,  and  Louisiana  had  kept  the  promise 
mutually  given  long  before  that  they  would  pray  for 
each  other  by  name  every  Sunday  morning.^  Each 
section  was  fully  aware  of  the  others'  sentiments. 
Northern  Churclimen  had  often  heard  the  Bishop  of 
Virginia  say,  and  in  general  they  agreed  with  him,  that 
slavery  was  never  to  his  taste  ;  but  that  he  had  no 
conscientious  scruples  as  to  its  lawfulness.^  They 
knew  that  he  had,  like  many  others,  emancipated 
slaves  himself,  only  to  find  the  poor  creatures  helpless 
vagabonds  in  the  midst  of  a  slave-holding  commu- 
nity.* Indeed,  manumission  of  individuals  was  a  very 
doubtful  kindness.  When  that  sturdy  Vermonter, 
Bishop  Chase,  went  to  live  in  New  Orleans,  he  was 
compelled  to  purchase  his  negro  Jack,  because  he  could 
not  obtain  a  servant  in  any  other  way.  But  having 
ended  his  residence  there,  he  was  at  his  wit's  end  to 
know  what  to  do  with  Jack.^  Northern  Churchmen 
knew  that  their  brethren  in  the  South  were  not  alto- 
gether unmindful  of  the  religious  welfare  of  their  slaves. 
They  knew  that  in  South  Carolina  there  were  a  hundred 
and  fifty  congregations  of  negroes  for  a  hundred  of 
whites ; «  that  the  Bishop  of  Virginia  had  preached  his 
Convention  Sermon  upon  the  duty  owed  by  the  whites 
to  negroes ;  that  thousands  of  them  were  regular  and 
faithful  communicants. 

1  Johns:  Life  of  Bishop  Meade,  p.  492. 

2  lb.,  p.  237. 
s  lb.,  p.  476. 

4  Caswall :  American  Church  and  Union,  p.  276. 

5  Chase:  Reminiscences,  vol.  i.  p.  75. 

6  Caswall :  p.  273. 


IN   WAR   TIME.  365 

All  these  things  did  not  change  their  opinion  of 
slavery.  It  was  bad,  only  bad,  and  that  continually. 
But  this  mutual  understanding  and  sympathy  kept  the 
Church  together  while  the  Union  lasted,  and  brought  it 
together  again  as  soon  as  that  was  restored. 

In  1860  it  became  evident  that  a  slave-holding  people 
and  a  free  people  would  not  live  in  the  same  house. 
Southern        ^^^^  when  secessiou  was  first  proposed  it  was 

bishops  op-     strenuously  resisted  by  the  leading  Southern 
pose  seces-  '  ^.  ,  n  -ri-.      .    •  ^    ^  • 

sion.  bishops.     The    Bishop  of  Virginia  used  his 

great  influence  against  it.^     The  Bishop  of  Maryland 

was  still  more  outspoken,  and  remained  steadfast  to  the 

Union  throuo-h  all.^      In  its   defence  he  sacrificed  the 

love   of   lifelong  friends,  and    nearly  broke    his    heart. 

Otey  of  Tennessee  wrote  to  Bishop  Polk,  "  It  is   God 

alone  that  can  still  the   madness    of   the  people.      To 

what  quarter  shall  we  look  when  such  men  as  you  and 

Elliott   deliberately    favor    secession?      What   can    we 

expect,  other  than  violence  among  the  masses,  when 

the  fathers  of  the  land  openly  avow  their  determination 

to  destroy  the  work  which  their  fathers  established  at 

the  expense  of  their  blood  ?  "  ^ 

But    when    secession    became   a   political    fact,    the 

Southern  Churchmen  maintained  that  it  carried  with  it 

ecclesiastical    separation.      They    contended   that   they 

had  no  choice.     When  the  States  in  which  they  lived 

went  out  of  the  Union,  they  bore  the  Church  with  them 

1  Johns:  Life  of  Bishop  Meade,  p.  492.  "You  see  that  I  am  almost 
in  despair.  I  am  told  tliat  our  clergy  in  Charleston  preach  in  favor  of 
disunion.  I  fear  soine  of  our  bishops  consent,  or  wliy  have  I  heard  of  no 
remonstrance?  " 

«  Brand:  Life  of  Bishop  Whittingham,  vol.  ii.  pp.  11,  20. 

3  Green :  Life  of  Bishop  Otey,  p.  90. 


366  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

as  really  as  a  ship  bears  her  company  out  to  sea.  To 
their  minds  the  separation  was  as  complete  as  though  a 
Southern        physical  chasm  had  suddenly  yawned  between 

idea  of  the         ^|^g    ^^j.^}^    ^j-^j    ^j^g    Soutll.^        BishopS     Polk 

Church  and  ^ 

the  States.      and    Elliott  say  in  a  circular  letter,   "  This 

necessity  does  not  arise  out  of  any  division  which  has 
occurred  within  the  Church  itself,  nor  from  any  dissat- 
isfaction with  either  the  doctrine  or  discipline  of  the 
Church.  We  rejoice  to  record  that  we  are  to-day,  as 
Churchmen,  as  truly  brethren  as  we  have  ever  been,  and 
that  no  deed  has  been  done,  or  word  uttered,  which  leaves 
a  single  wound  rankling  in  any  breast."  The  Southern 
Churchmen  had  retained  the  original  idea  that  the 
general  Church  was  made  by  a  voluntary  compact  of 
autonomous  State  Churches,  long  after  that  idea  had 
faded  out  of  mind  in  the  North.  Bishop  Meade  had 
not  taken  kindly  to  the  General  Missionary  Society, 
and  had  opposed  the  General  Seminary  for  this  very 
reason.  They  seemed  to  him  to  be  movements  toward 
a  centralization  which  he  believed  to  be  contrary  both 
to  the  spirit  and  the  policy  of  the  Church.^  When  the 
Stales  seceded  one  by  one,  the  Churches  within  them 
reverted  to  their  primitive  diocesan  independence. 
No  violent  revolution  in  their  ecclesiastical  ideas  was 
needed  to  bring  them  into  harmony  with  their  new 
situation.  When  the  States  confederated  themselves 
into  a  new  nation,  it  was  the  most  natural  thing  for  the 
dioceses  to  confederate  themselves  into  a  new  Church, 

1  Wilmer:  The  Recent  Past,  p.  22G. 

"  As  if  an  abyss  liud  suddenly  yawned  between  the  two  sections." 

2  Johns:  Life  of  Bishup  Meade,  pp.  109,  504. 


IN  WAR  TIME.  367 

All  their  previous  habits  of  thought  made  the  way  easy 

for  them.^ 

When  the  General  Convention  met  in  New  York  in 

1862,  the  chasm  had  opened  between  the  two  sections, 

and  war  was  already  raging.     The  Southern 

Secession.       ^-|-Qpgggg    ^^^re    absent.      What    should    the 

Church  do  in  this  new  exigency? 

Once,  long  before,  the  delegates  from  a  geographical 
section  had  been  absent.  A  belt  of  yellow  fever  had 
cut  off  New  England  from  the  other  States.  At  that 
time,  the  Church  had  accepted  the  physical  explana- 
tion, and  proceeded  without  the  absent  brethren.  The 
same  thing  was  done  now.  The  Convention  tacitly 
adopted  the  same  theory  which  had  controlled  the 
action  of  the  Southern  dioceses.  There  was  a  physical 
obstacle  in  the  Avay  of  their  coming.  But  every  day  the 
roll  of  all  the  States  was  called.^  The  delegates  might 
come  and  take  their  seats  if  they  would  or  could.  The 
possibility  of  any  diocese  being  voluntarily  absent  was 
io-nored.  By  the  next  triennial  Convention  they  had  re- 
turned. The  General  Convention  continued  to  act  as 
the  representative  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States.  The  Nation  did  not  acknowledge 
that  any  States  had  gone ;  no  more  did  the  Church. 

But  it  was  confronted  with  the  question  of  what  was 
its   duty  to  the   Nation  in  this  its  hour  of 
Indthe'^''''       need.     The  deliverance  of  a  body  so  influ- 
^"'°°-  ential  as  the  Episcopal  Church  would  carry 

weight,  and  was  anxiously  looked  for.     It  was  given 
without  hesitation  in  favor  of  the  Union.     A  committee 

>  Green:  Life  of  Bishop  Otey,  p.  121. 
2  General  Convention  Journal,  1862. 


368  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

of  nine  was  appointed  to  prepare  a  fitting  declaration.^ 
When  reported  and  adopted,  after  long  and  earnest  dis- 
cussion, it  set  forth :  That  obedience  to  civil  authority 
is  a  Christian's  duty  and  a  Churchman's  habit;  that 
while  the  Convention  had  no  hard  words  for  its  breth- 
ren in  tVie  South,  it  could  not  be  blind  to  the  fact  that 
they  were  "  in  open  and  armed  resistance  to  regularly 
constituted  government ; "  that  as  individual  citizens 
the  members  of  the  Convention  will  not  be  found 
wanting  in  word  or  deed  to  aid  the  country  in  its 
struggle ;  that  as  the  council  of  a  Church  which  hath 
ever  renounced  all  political  action,  they  can  only  pray 
that  the  National  Government  may  be  successful  in  this 
its  rightful  endeavor. 

A  lay  deputy  from  Maryland  opposed  the  action,  on 
the  ground  that  a  Church  council  may  not  concern  itself 
in  any  way  with  political  questions.  The  Presiding 
Bishop,  Hopkins  of  Vermont,  took  the  same  position, 
and  refused  to  read  the  Pastoral  Letter  which  expressed 
the  same  general  sentiment  of  patriotism.^  These  ob- 
jections were  brushed  aside.  The  issue  was  felt  to  be 
moral  rather  than  political.  Ecclesiastical  precisians 
could  not  be  heard  upon  it.  The  whole  weight  of  the 
Church's  influence,  which  was  not  small,  was  given  to 
the  Union  side  throughout  the  struggle.  In  the  very 
darkest  hour,  when  it  became  almost  a  matter  of  life  or 
death  to  change  the  drift  of  English  sympathy  from  the 
Southern  to  the  Northern  side.  Bishop  M'llvaine  was 
one  of  the  ambassadors  at  large  to  the  English  people, 

1  General  Convention  Journal,  1862. 

2  Brand  :  Life  of  Bishop  Whittingliam,  vol.  ii.  p.  32. 


IN   WAR   TIME.  369 

chosen  and  informally  accredited  by  President  Lincoln. 
Together  with  Thurlow  Weed,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and 
Archbishop  Hughes,  he  went  to  England.  He  had  enter- 
tained the  Prince  of  Wales  while  visiting  this  country, 
and  was  well  known  among  that  class  who  most  needed 
to  be  set  right  upon  the  true  nature  of  the  conflict. 
Few  men  effected  more  for  the  Union  cause  than  did 
the  Bishop  of  Ohio  by  this  embassage.^ 

Meanwhile  the  absent  dioceses  had  organized  the 
Church  in  the  Confederate  States.^  Its  leaders  were 
Polk,  the  Bishop  of  Louisiana,  and  Elliott,  the  Bishop 

of   Georgia.     The    Bishop    of    Virginia   was 
The  Church  .  ,      ,  .  ,        ,         , 

in  the  Con-      With  them  now  in  sympathy,  but  he  was  old 

e  eracy.  ^^^^  near  to  die.  In  March  of  1861  Polk  and 
Elliott  met  at  Sewannee,  Tenn.,  on  business  connected 
with  the  University  of  the  South.  By  that  time  South 
Carolina,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Florida,  Georgia,  Louisi- 
ana, and  Texas  had  seceded.  The  Church  in  each  was 
an  ecclesiastical  fragment,  floating  in  space.  They  were 
only  more  fortunate  than  the  colonists  had  been  at  the 
close  of  the  Revolution,  in  that  they  had  diocesan  or- 
ganizations and  bishops.  Some  one  must  volunteer  to 
lead  them  if  they  were  to  confederate.  Polk  and  Elliott 
took  up  the  task.  They  addressed  a  circular  letter,  ask- 
ing each  seceded  diocese  to  send  delegates  to  a  con- 
ference to  be  held  at  Montgomery,  Ala.,  in  July.  In 
response  to  their  call  thirty  delegates  came.  Four 
bishops   were    present,    Elliott   of    Georgia,    Green    of 

•  Dyer:  Records  of  an  Active  Life,  p.  280. 

*  The  material  for  this  sketch  of  the  Churcli  in  the  Confederate  States 
is  chiefly  taken  from  a  monograph  of  that  title  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  John 
Fulton  in  Perry's  History  of  the  American  Church,  vol.  ii.  pp.  561-592. 


370  THE   PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

Mississippi,  Rutledge  of  Florida,  and  Davis  of  South 
Carolina.  Cobbs  of  Alabama  had  just  died;  Otey  of 
Tennessee  was  ill ;  Meade  of  Virginia  was  old  and 
infirm ;  Atkinson  of  North  Carolina  did  not  respond ; 
Gregg  of  Texas  was  cut  off  by  the  blockade  ;  Polk  had 
entered  the  Confederate  Army.  Six  dioceses  were  rep- 
resented by  clergy  or  laymen.  All  three  orders  sat  in 
one  House.  There  were  no  rules,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case.  The  Convention  was  not  a  Church,  but  the 
material  out  of  which  one  might  be  framed.  They 
agreed  that  it  was  "necessary  and  expedient"  that  the 
dioceses  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
seceded  States  should  form  among  themselves  an  inde- 
pendent organization.  It  was  urged  that  the  eyes  of 
the  Confederacy  were  upon  them,  and  that  they  owed 
the  new  government  the  moral  support  which  they  could 

give  it  by  acting  as  if  they  expected  it  to  be 
Organization,     ,  .  ,.  .  .      .        . 

abiding.    An  ecclesiastical  reason  also  pressed. 

Alabama  was  without  a  bishop.  If  it  should  elect  a  man 
to  that  office,  as  was  likely,  who  would  take  order  for 
his  consecration?  The  situation  was  difficult.  The 
Convention  was  not  large  enough  or  representative 
enough  to  go  forward  to  a  complete  organization  ;  it 
was  too  large  and  too  conspicuous  to  go  back  and  leave 
nothing  done.  They  therefore  took  a  recess  until  the 
following  October,  appointing  a  committee,  of  three  of 
each  order,  to  prepare  a  constitution  and  canons  mean- 
while. When  October  came,  all  the  States  in  the  Con- 
federacy were  represented  save  Texas,  and  all  the 
bishops  present  except  General  Polk.  Then  they  went 
forward  and  adopted  the  constitution  and  canons,  sub- 


IN  WAR  TIME.  371 

stantially  the  same  as  those  they  had  been  familiar  with 
in  the  general  Church,  thus  perfecting  the  Church  in 
the  Confederacy.  The  name  of  ^  Reformed  Catholic  " 
was  proposed  for  the  new  organization,  but  failed  of 
adoption.  Following  the  guidance  of  existing  facts,  as 
the  Conference  in  INIaryland  had  done  eighty  years 
before,  they  called  it  the  "•  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  Confederate  States  of  America."  The  Prayer- 
Book  was  changed  by  substituting  Confederate  States 
for  United  States  throughout.^  Arkansas,  then  a  jMis- 
sionary  Jurisdiction  of  the  old  Church,  was  admitted  as 
a  diocese  in  the  new  one.  Shortly  afterward  Alabama 
elected  Dr.  R.  H.  Wilmer  to  be  its  bishop.  This  com- 
pelled the  new  Church  to  discharge  the  functions  of  a 
General  Council.  The  consent  of  the  several  standing 
committees  was  secured,  and  the  senior  bishop  in  the 
Confederacy  took  order  for  his  consecration.  In  all 
respects  the  new  organization  proceeded  to  act  as  a 
national  Church. 

But  in  the  daily  life  of  its  members  it  encountered 
grave  difficulties.  Apart  from  the  hardships  and  priva- 
Confederate  tions  which  arose  from  their  territory  being 
Church  and     ^^^^   ^^^^   ^^    ^^^      their    liturgical    worship 

Federal  au-  °  ^ 

thorities.  brought  them  constantly  into  conflict  with 
the  Federal  military  authorities.  Their  Liturgy  put 
into  their  mouths  words  of  prayer  for  the  Confederacy 
instead  of  for  the  United  States  and  its  President.     Its 

1  Dr.  Fulton  calls  attention  to  the  curious  fact  tliat  in  the  only  edition 
of  this  Prayer-Book  ever  published  (by  Eyre  and  Spottiswoode,  London), 
the  words  United  States  remained  by  an  oversight  in  the  Forms  of  Prayer 
to  be  Used  at  Sea.  So  that  aboard  the"  Alabama  "  (if  the  company  prayed 
at  all)  they  must  pray,  "  That  we  may  be  a  safeguard  to  the  United  States 
of  America,  and  a  security  for  such  as  pass  on  the  seas  on  their  lawful 
occasions  "  1 


372  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   pHURCH. 

use  put  them  at  a  disadvantage  as  compared  with  the 
other  Christian  people  in  the  Confederac}'.  The  Romish 
Liturgy,  being  in  a  language  not  understanded  of  the 
people,  and  recognizing  no  ruler  but  the  Pope,  could  be 
used  in  the  United  States  or  in  the  Confederacy  or  in 
the  planet  Jupiter  with  equal  fitness.  Non-Liturgical 
clergymen  could  avoid  words  of  constructive  treason  by 
any  periphrases  they  chose.  If  their  petitions  were 
only  intelligible  by  God,  they  need  not  offend  any 
earthly  authority.  But  Churchmen  were  in  an  evil 
case.  If  they  held  public  worship  at  all,  they  must 
offend.  To  use  the  prayers  for  the  rulers  or  to  omit 
them  was  equally  dangerous.  In  1862  General  Butler 
issued  an  order  that  "'  the  omission,  in  the  service  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  New  Orleans,  of 
the  Prayers  for  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
would  be  regarded  as  evidence  of  hostility  to  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States."  In  a  lengthy 
General 
Butler  as  a     correspondence  which  ensued,  the  general  un- 

Canonist.  ^ertook  to  show  the  clergy  what  the  Canon 
Law  required  in  the  premises.  His  canonical  knoAvl- 
edge  was  equal  to  his  military  skill.  But  the  discussion 
was  terminated  by  the  forcible  closure  of  the  churches. 
The  rectors  were  arrested  and  sent  North  as  military 
prisoners,  but  upon  their  arrival  at  New  York  were  at 
once  set  at  liberty.  Similar  conflicts  were  constantly 
occurring  as  the  Federal  forces  gained  control  of  more 
and  more  territory.  Dr.  Wingfield  of  Portsmouth,  Va., 
was  condemned  to  the  chain-gang  for  a  similar  offence. 
Dr.  Smith  of  Alexandria  was  arrested  in  his  chancel 
for  refusing  to  use  the  Prayer  for  the  President  of  the 


IN   WAR   TIME.  373 

United  States  at  the  command  of  a  military  officer  who 
was  present.!  General  Woods  inhibited  the  Bishop  and 
all  the  clergy  of  Alabama.  For  a  time,  the  churches  in 
that  State  were  closed,  and  armed  guards  stationed  at 
the  doors  to  keep  them  from  being  opened.^  The  Bishop 
was  followed  to  his  retreat  by  an  officer  instructed  to 
see  that  he  should  pray  for  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  One  of  his  clergy  consented  to  use  the  prayer 
for  the  President,  but  "  under  protest !  "  =^  A  letter 
from  the  Bishop  to  President  Lincoln  produced  an 
immediate  revocation  of  the  obnoxious  order.  Such 
instances  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  The  Church 
in  the  South  had  set  itself  in  antagonism  to  the  United 
States  by  the  very  fact  of  its  existence.  Its  raison 
d'etre  was  the  assumption  that  certain  States  had 
actually  withdrawn  from  the  Union.  From  the  North- 
ern point  of  view,  they  not  only  had  not  gone 

Fall  of  the  ,  ,  ,•  ^        ^  ^i  t.    j 

Confederate  out,  but  by  attempting  to  do  so  they  had 
Church.  committed  a  flagrant  offence.     The   Church 

became  particeps  crhninis  in  the  offence.  Its  Liturgy 
made  it  impossible  for  it  to  evade  the  consequences  of 
its  original  act  of  organization.  The  only  final  justifica- 
tion of  revolution  is  success.  In  this  case  success  was 
wanting,  hi  its  absence,  all  concerned  in  the  attempt 
bore  their  share  of  the  awful  cost  of  failure.  None  bore 
it  with  a  better  grace  or  a  more  patient  dignity  than  the 
short-lived  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Confed- 
erate States. 

1  Slaughter:  Memorial  of  the  Rev.  George  Archibald  Smith,  p.  41. 

2  Wilmer:  The  Recent  Past,  p.  14(5. 

8  The  Bishop,  very  properly,  wonders  what  would  be  the  precise  effect 
of  suoh  a  prayer? 


374  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE    REUXITED   CHURCH. 

In  the  spring  of  1865  the  Confederacy  ceased  to  be. 
With  its  dissolution  the  reason  for  the  Southern  Church 
passed  away.  Their  contention  from  the  first  had  been 
that,  being  cut  off  from  the  United  States  by  no  act  of 
their  own,  the  dioceses  in  tlie  seceded  States  simply 
conformed  to  existinsf  facts  in  org-anizinCT  a  new  church. 
Now,  on  their  own  principles,  their  Church's  place 
was  gone.  Their  Prayer-Book  was  obsolete.  There 
was  no  longer  any  "  President  of  the  Confederate 
States  "  to  pray  for  if  they  had  wished  it.  But  it  was 
not  so  clear  that  they  had  been  borne  back  involunta- 
rily into  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  by  the  reflux 
of  the  tide.  They  might  not  be  willing  to  resume  their 
long  vacant  places  ;  the  Church  might  not  be  willing  to 
receive  them.  They  had  gone  out  because  a  political 
chasm  separated  the  two  sections.    That  gulf 

Moving 

toward  was  now  closed,  but  not  until  it   had    been 

reunion.  ^^^^^  ^^j^j^  human   blood.      Fortunately  old 

friendships  still  held.  The  Presiding  Bishop,  Hopkins 
of  Vermont,  and  Bishop  Elliott  of  Georgia,  the  leader  in 
the  Southern  Church,  were  more  than  brethren.  Their 
old  affection  for  each  other  was  unbroken.  Elliott 
clearly  discerned  the  situation.  "  We  appealed,"  he 
said,    "  to  the  God  of  battles,  and  He   has  given  His 


THE   REUNITED   CHURCH.  375 

decision  against  us.  We  accept  the  result  as  the  work, 
not  of  man,  but  of  God."  ^  In  this  temper  he  was  ready 
to  work  for  peace  and  unity.  But  all  were  not  of  his 
mind.  Chagrin,  humiliation,  apprehension,  and  anger 
were  common  among  his  people.  The  unhappy  "  recon- 
struction "  period  had  set  in.  Military  governors  were 
still  in  occupation  of  the  late  seceded  States.  Bishop 
Hopkins,  with  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  his  breth- 
ren, sent  a  circular  letter  to  all  the  Southern  Bishops, 
assuring  them  of  a  welcome  if  they  would  take  their 
places  in  the  approaching  General  Convention  in  Octo- 
ber. Bishop  Wilmer  of  Alabama  expressed  the  senti- 
ment both  of  his  own  State  and  Mississippi  ^  when  he 
replied  that  it  was  by  no  means  clear  as  yet  that  the 
Southern  dioceses  might  not  retain  their  separate  posi- 
Obstacies  in  ^^^^^ '  ^'^^^^  would  depend  upon  circumstances 
the  way.  j^q^  yg^  determined  ;  ^  that  they  could  not 
come  back  as  supplicants  for  pardon  ;  that  human  pas- 
sions were  facts  which  must  be  taken  account  of;  that 
the  best  men  in  the  South  were  yet  under  the  ban  as 
traitors ;  that  their  representative  man  might  yet  be 
hanged  ;  that  all  would  depend  upon  the  spirit  shown  by 
the  General  Convention  itself  when  it  should  meet ;  that 
they  could  abide  the  result  of  the  war,  but  could  not 
yet  join  in  Te  Deiims  over  their  own  defeat. 

Apart  from  the  sore  temper  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
triumphant  one  on  the  other,  there  were  grave  difficul- 
ties to  be  adjusted.     The  Bishop  of  Alabama  had  been 

1  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  339. 
>2  Wilmer:  Tlie  Recent  Past,  p.  166. 
3  lb.,  p.  155. 


376  THE   PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

elected  and  consecrated  outside  of  the  Church's  rules. 
Arkansas  had  been  taken  from  the  missionary  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Southwest,  and  erected  into  a  diocese. 
Worst  of  all,  Bishop  Polk  of  Louisiana  had  broken 
Catholic  rule  and  violated  Christian  sentiment  by  tak- 
ing arms.  But  his  name  was  dear  in  the 
IS  op  0  .  gQ^^j-j-j^  j^  graduate  of  West  Point,  he  had 
been  almost  forced  into  command  at  a  time  when  com- 
petent leaders  were  hard  to  find.  He  had  assumed  the 
duty  most  reluctantly.^  But  he  was  urged  on  every 
hand.  Even  the  old  Bishop  of  Virginia  had  called  to 
his  mind,  when  he  hesitated,  that  "  the  conduct  of 
Phinehas  was  so  praiseworthy  that  the  inspired  David 
says  it  was  accounted  to  him  for  righteousness  through 
all  posterities  for  evermore ;  and  did  not  Samuel,  the 
minister  of  God  from  his  infancy,  lead  forth  the  hosts 
of  Israel  to  battle,  and  Avith  his  own  hand  slay  the  king 
of  Amalek  ?  "  ^  He  had  taken  up  the  sword  against  his 
will,  and  sought  in  vain  to  be  allowed  to  lay  it  down.^ 
At  Pine  Mountain  he  had  fallen,  and  his  blood  had 
discolored  the  Prayer-Book  in  his  pocket,  and  half 
washed  out  of  it  the  names,  written  by  his  own  hand, 
of  his  three  friends,  Johnson,  Hood,  and  Hardee.^  Any 
suggestion  of  censure  upon  the  conduct  of  the  dead 
could  not  be  borne. 

All  these  things  made  the  Southern  people  hesitate. 
They  needed  not  to  have  done  so.  When  the  General 
Convention  met  at  Philadelphia  in  October,  1865,  the 

•  Fulton,  in  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  581. 

2  Green:  Life  of  Bishop  Otey,  p.  9G. 

8  lb.,  p.  100. 

4  Fulton,  in  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  583. 


THE    REUNITED   CHUKCII.  377 

clerk  of  the  House  of  Deputies  began  with  "  Alabama  " 
in  calling  the  roll  of  dioceses.  The  roll  had  never  been 
General  Con-  changed.  Alabama  and  the  other  Confed- 
ventionof       erate  States  had  only  been  absent  from  one 

1665. 

meeting,  and  their  names  had  never  been  re- 
moved.    To  the  general  gratification  of  all,  two  South- 
ern bishops,  Atkinson  of  North  Carolina,  and  Lay  of 
Arkansas,  were  present  at  the  opening  service.     They 
came,   doubting  both  their  right  and   their  welcome. ^ 
They    were    hospitably   entreated   and    constrained    to 
take  their  places.     The  Convention  acted  on  the  dreaded 
questions  with  good-sense  and  generosity.     It  was  re- 
solved that  the  Bishop  of  Alabama  should  be  received 
upon  signing  the  ordinary  declaration  of  conformity .2 
No  question  was  raised  about  the  regularity  of  his  con- 
secration.    The   case   of   Arkansas    had   settled   itself. 
Its  short  life  as  a  diocese  had  been  destroyed  by  the 
ravages  of  war.     The  Church  within  it  was  practically 
extinct.     Bishop  Lay  had  been  all  the  while,  in  spite  of 
himself,  the  missionary  bishop  of  the  Southwest.     In 
that  capacity  his  place  Avas  still  open.     The  career  of 
Bishop  Polk  was  not  referred  to.     He  was  dead.     But 
the   harmony  came    near    being   destroyed   by  an    un- 
expected means.     The    House  of  Bishops  proposed  a 
thanksgiving  service  for  "the  restoration  of  peace  and 
Reunion  the  re-establishment  of  the  National  Govern- 

iraperilled.        jj^g,^^  ^^^^.   ^j^^  ^^.j^^^^    ^^^^^„      ^j^^    Bishop  of 

North  Carolina  protested  that  his  people  could  not  say 
that.     They  acquiesced  in   the  result  of  the  war,  and 

1  Harrison:  Life  of  Bishop  Kerfoot,  vol.  ii.  p.  391. 

2  General  Convention  Journal,  18(J5. 


378  THE   PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

would  accommodate  themselves  to  it  like  good  citizens ; 
but  they  were  not  thankful.  They  had  prayed  that  the 
issue  might  liave  been  different.  They  were  ready  to 
"return  thanks  for  peace  to  the  country,  and  unity  to 
the  Church;  "  but  that  was  a  different  matter.  .Bishop 
Stevens  of  Pennsylvania  moved  to  substitute  the  South- 
ern man's  words  for  the  ones  in  the  resolution  offered. 
His  motion  was  carried  by  sixteen  to  seven.^  When 
the  amended  resolution  was  offered  in  the  House  of 
Deputies,   Horace    Binney  of   Pennsylvania   moved  to 

restore    the    original    phrase    giving    thanks 
Horace 
Binney's         "  for   the    re-cstablishment   of   the    National 

Government  over  the   whole    land,"   and  to 

add  to  it  "  and  for  the  removal  of  the  great  occasion  of 

national  dissension  and  estrangement  to  which  our  late 

troubles  were  due  "  (referring  to  slaver}').^     A  storm 

of  discussion  at  once  arose,  both  within  and  without  the 

Convention.     The  secular  press  of  the  country  took  up 

the   matter;  declared  that  the  loyalty  of  the   Church 

itself  was  upon  trial ;  that  it  dare  not  refuse  to  pass  Mr. 

Binney's  patriotic  resolution ;  that  too  much  tenderness 

had  already  been  shown  to  "unreconstructed  rebels." 

Dr.  Kerfoot,  President  of  Trinity  College,  came  to  the 

rescue.^     He  had  been,  all  through  the  war,  a  Union  man 

in  a  place  Avhere  his  loyalty  had  cost  him  something. 

His  college  in  Maryland  had  been  well-nigh  destroyed. 

He  had  tended  the  wounded  at  Antietam  and  South 

INIountain,   battles  fought  at  his  very  door.     He   had 


1  Perry:  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  502. 

2  General  Convention  Journal,  18{>5. 

8  Harrison:   Life  of  Bishop  Kerfoot,  vol.  11.  p.  393,  et  seq. 


THE  REUNITED  CHURCH.  379 

been  seized  a  prisoner  by  General  Early's  order.  His 
goods  had  been  destroyed  by  the  Confederate  soldiery. 
He,  if  any  one,  had  the  right  to  speak.  His  own  loyalty 
was  beyond  all  question.  He  begged  the  Convention 
Dr  Kerfoot's  to  remember  that  it  had  itself  invited  and 
plea.  uro-ed  the  Southern  delegates  to  come ;  that 

the  place  to  celebrate  the  triumph  of  the  Northern  arms 
was  outside  of  the  Church ;  that  not  only  the  present 
but  the  future  peace  of  the  Church  was  at  stake ;  that 
if  the  Church  should  be  led  by  its  passions  now,  future 
unity  would  be  impossible  ;  that  "  their  thanksgiving 
for  unity  and  peace  should  ascend  to  tlie  throne  of  God 
in  such  a  form  that  all  could  honestly  join  in  it." 

His  wise  and  earnest  argument  prevailed.  By  a  vote 
of  twenty  dioceses  to  six,  Mr.  Binney's  amendment  was 
defeated,^  and  the  House  of  Bishops'  more  generous 
terms  were  carried.  This  action  settled  the 
question  of  reunion.  The  Southern  Church 
met  once  more  at  Augusta,  closed  out  its  affairs 
decently,  and  was  no  more. 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  its  integrity 
entered  upon  its  modern  life  in  an  undivided  nation. 
The  generation  now  living  had  come  upon  the  stage. 
But  the  war  had  done  far  more  than  to  settle  a  political 
dispute.  It  had  profoundly  changed  the  conditions  of 
American  life.  It  introduced  four  millions  of  manu- 
mitted slaves  to  a  new  social,  political,  religious  exist- 
ence. The  old  methods  of  the  Church  for  them  were  no 
longer  applicable.     The  awful  problem  pressed  to  find 

1  General  Convention  Journal,  1865. 

1  Brand:  Life  of  Bishop  Whittingham,  vol.  ii.  p.  74. 


380  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

new  and  efficient  ones.  The  war  had  done  much  to 
break  up  sectarian  isohition.  When  young  men  who 
had  been  taught  in  their  country  homes  that 
effects  of  the  Romanism  was  pure  abomination,  had  been 
war.  gently  nursed  by  Sisters  of  Charity  in  the 

military  hospital,  their  prejudices  were  greatly  shaken. 
When  Churchmen  had  their  wounds  bound  up  and  heard 
extemporaneous  prayers  offered  at  their  side  by  Meth- 
odist and  Presbyterian  chaplains  and  Christian  Com- 
mission agents,  they  changed  their  thought  about  the 
validity  of  a  ministry  which  bore  such  fruits.  When 
these  in  turn  heard  Churchmen  openly  recite  the  Creed 
and  say  their  prayers,  they  were  arrested  and  impressed. 
The  end  of  the  war  was  followed  by  a  period  of  restless 
moving  to  and  fro.  Soldiers  had  learned  to  travel. 
They  brought  back  with  them  to  their  quiet  homes  a 
broader  habit  of  mind  and  a  quickened  consciousness  of 
national  life.  The}'  brought  a  wider  thought  to  the 
congregations  where  they  worshipped.  A  ferment  was 
working  in  every  province  of  life.  It  could  be  seen  in 
commerce,  art,  and  social  habit.     Religion  felt  it  also. 

The  Church  was  in  the  presence  of  a  new  set  of  facts 
and  forces.  To  understand  them  would  require  of  her 
judgment  and  a  sound  mind,  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and 
ghostly  strength.  The  Doctrine  of  Evolution,  just 
coming  into  notice,  was  to  change  her  whole  way  of 
New  fore  s  regarding  life  and  man.  The  teaching  of 
and  new  Robertson,  Maurice,  and  the  author  of  "  Ecce 

pro  ems.  jjomo,"  with  the  new  method  in  History  and 
Criticism,  was  to  become  a  solvent  of  many  of  her  ac- 
cepted dogmas.    The  revived  movement  of  population 


THE   REUNITED   CHURCH.  381 

westward  was  to  tax  her  missionary  spirit  to  its  utmost. 
Her  great  work  among  the  Indians  in  the  Northwest, 
already  begun,  was  to  be  carried  to  completion.  She 
was  to  plant  a  church  in  Hayti,  and  to  aid  and  foster 
one  in  Mexico.  The  wisdom  and  energy  needed  to 
adjust  herself  to  the  changed  conditions  of  life  was  to 
be  drawn  off  for  a  period  into  the  long,  dreary,  barren 
contest  over  Ritual.  The  amazing  spectacle  of  grave 
and  learned  theologians  and  jurists  endeavoring  to  per- 
form modistes''  and  dancing  masters'  ^  work  was  to  be 
displayed  before  the  astonished  eyes  of  an  earnest  gener- 
ation which  had  just  fought  a  mighty  war  over  ques- 
tions of  the  first  rank.  Bishop  Cummins  and  his 
following  of  restless  spirits  were  to  add  a  superfluous 
sect  to  the  divisions  of  Christendom.  The  Church 
Congress  was  to  give  outlet  to  surcharged  thought, 
and  to  bring  men  to  a  better  knowledge  of  eacli  other's 
spirit.  The  "Church  Idea"  was  to  be  infused  into 
American  Protestantism.  The  task  of  the  memorial- 
ists was  to  be  taken  up  again,  and  the  Liturgy  revised 
to  fit  the  exigencies  of  common  life.  The  idea  of  a 
mechanical  uniformity  was  to  be  unconsciously  for- 
saken. The  Episcopate  was  to  break  from  its  tram- 
mels, and  proclaim  to  the  divided  Christian  world  the 
Church's  hope  and  plan  for  Unit3^ 

1  A  committee  of  five  bishops,  among  the  greatest  in  learning  and 
character,  deliberated  and  reported  concerning  the  washing  of  the 
priest's  hands,  bowings,  genuflections,  reverences,  bowing  down  upon  or 
kissing  the  holy  table;  a  surplice  reaching  to  the  ankles  for  choristers; 
a  surplice  not  reaching  below  the  ankle  for  priests;  stoles,  bands,  black 
gowns,  and  university  caps.    General  Convention  Journal,  1871. 


382  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 


CHAPTEK  XIII. 

DOCTRINE   AND   CEREMONIAL. 

While  statesmen  and  politicians  were  busy  over  the 
problem  of  "  Reconstruction,"  ecclesiastics  and  Church 
conventions  were  bus}^  with  the  "  Ritual  Controversy." 
This  term,  which  we  use  as  convenient  because  it  has 
been  so  generally  applied  to  the  question  at  issue,  is, 
indeed,  misleading.  It  is  inconceivable  that  devout 
and  earnest  Christians  and  Churchmen  should  have 
thought  worth  while  to  argue,  denounce,  struggle, 
manoeuvre,  and  pray  for  or  against  a  little  more  or  less 
of  elaborate  form  in  the  conduct  of  the  public  worship 
of  God.  The  contestants  on  both  sides  were  always 
careful  to  declare  that  they  regarded  "Ritual,"  in 
itself  considered,  as  of  very  subordinate  moment. 
What,  then,  was  at  issue  ?  What  saved  a  controversy 
which  was  waged  so  furiously  for  a  decade,  and  which 
divides  men's  opinions  to-day,  from  being  laughed  off 
the  stage?  Men  do  not  long  continue  to  be  inter- 
ested  in  paltry  things.  Should  the  Christian  Minister 
be  called  a  priest  or  a  presbyter?  Should  the  Holy 
Table  be  called  a  table  or  an  altar  ?  Should  the  offici- 
The  worth  of  ating  Minister  wear  a  surplice  or  a  black 
ritual.  gown?    Should  candles  be  permitted  to  burn 

by  daylight  on  or  about  the  altar  ?     Should  floAvers  be 
allowed  in  the  chancel   or  about   the  font?      Should 


DOCTRINE    AND    CEREMONIAL.  383 

anthems  be  sung  or  said  V  These  things,  in  themselves, 
are  allowed  to  be  of  no  more  consequence  than  the 
color  of  a  cockade.  But,  then,  the  color  of  a  cockade 
has  more  than  once  in  the  world's  history  sufficed  to  in- 
flame a  nation.  The  rival  hues  of  the  red  and  the  white 
rose  have  served  tu  keep  a  kingdom  at  war  for  genera- 
tions. What  Avas  at  issue  in  the  Ritual  Controversy  ? 
At  bottom  it  was  a  local  phase  of  that  division  which 
is  as  old  as  the  history  of  Eeligion  between  the  Prophet 
and  the  Priest.  The  Sons  of  Levi  a,nd  the  Sons  of  the 
Prophets  have  ever  liad  a  different  thought  concerning 
God's  ways  with  men.  Only  under  the  pressure  of  a 
common  peril  from  the  outside  do  Iddo  the  Seer  and 
Jeshua  the  son  of  Johzadek  work  together  for  the  build- 
ing of  God's  house.  For  more  than  two  centuries  the 
Protestant  doctrine  of  '' Justitication  by  Faith  alone" 
had  remained  unchallenged  in  the  Church  of  England. 
Ev^en  the  IS'on-jurorc;,  and  the  American  Churchman 
of  the  Seabury  and  liobart  type,  had  affirmed  it  as 
strenuously  as  had  the  Evangelicals.  Their  reverence 
f(jr  the  Sacraments  and  for  the  Church's  ways  was  due 
rather  to  their  love  of  order  and  prescription  than  to 
any  belief  that  salvation  was  attained  through  sacro- 
sanct observances. 

But  a  generation  had  now  grown  up  within  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Catholic  Revival.  The  very  essence  of  the 
Oxford  Movement  was  that  it  claimed  for  the  Church 
as  a  divine  institution  a  necessary  place  and  function 
in  the  salvation  of  the  individual.  The  Church,  it 
asserted,  is  not  a  society  into  which  men  come  after 
they   have    become    C-hristians,    and    in    which    they 


384  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

remain  because  they  are  Christians,  but  is  the  divinely 
ordained  instrument  by  which  men  are  made  Chris- 
The  Church  tians,  and  its  sacraments  and  ordinances  are 
idea.  ^he  means  by  which  their  spiritual  life  is 

ke])t  from  perishing.  To  those  thus  persuaded  every- 
thing connected  with  the  Church  takes  on  a  new  value 
and  signilicance.  It  is  not  enough  for  them  that  public 
service  shall  be  conducted  decently  and  with  decorum. 
The  high  and  dry  propriety  in  a  Connecticut  parish 
church  was  little  less  offensive  than  the  pietistic  free- 
dom of  an  Ohio  prayer  ineeting.  What  they  desired 
Avas  that  in  everything  connected  with  the  Church 
its  su])ernatural  quality  should  be  manifest.  The 
peculiarity  of  architecture,  the  bearing  of  the  wor- 
shippers, the  dress  of  the  officiant,  the  arrangement  of 
furniture,  lights,  flowers,  incense,  music,  gesture,  tone, 
all  these  should  conform  to  and  show  forth  the  central 
thought  of  the  Church  as  the  peculiar  dwelling  place  of 
God  on  earth.  Ritual  was  the  attempt  to  express  this. 
Few  were  clear-sighted  enough  to  discern  ])recisely 
what  was  desired  or  what  was  threatened,  but  still  fewer 
were  uninfluenced  by  the  movement  going  forward. 

The  movement  also  fell  in  and  marched  with  a  far 
wider  change  wliich  had  begun  to  show  itself  in  every 
department  of  life  among  the  people.  During  the 
Civil  "War  more  than  three  millions  of  men  had  learned 
to  wear  uniform  and  to  keep  step.  Civil  and  military 
display  had  grown  familiar.  Insignia  of  rank,  badges 
of  oflice,  rhythm  of  procession,  flags  and  banners  as 
symbols  of  organization,  things  from  which  the  repub- 
lican prejudice  of  ante  helium  days  had  turned  away, 


DOCTRINE  AND   CEREMONIAL.  385 

had  now  come  in.     Civil  and  military  ritual  are  closely 

related  to  ecclesiastic.     Agitation  for  cap  and  gown  set 

in  in  colleges  and  univ^ersities.      Uniforms  began  to  be 

worn  in  boys'  schools,  and  by  the  employees 
Civic  ritual.        ^       ..  ''       ^  ,  ,       ..     ,     ^ 

or  railways  and  steamboats,  and,  a  little  later 
on,  by  the  employees  of  great  private  firms.  A  sug- 
gestion of  similar  customs  twenty  years  earlier  would 
have  been  met  with  ridicule  or  indignation.  The  fact 
was  that  the  whole  nation  was  growing  ritualistic.  It 
was  too  much  to  expect,  even  if  one  wished  it,  that  the 
Church  should  remain  uninfluenced. 

But  the  movement  within  the  Church  was  opposed 
with  a  bitterness  and  intensity  of  zeal  which  it  is, 
happily,  difficult  to  realize  now.  Evangelicals  op])osed 
it  because  it  sprang  from  a  conception  of  the  Church 
and  a  rationale  of  Sacraments  which  was,  to  their 
minds,  radically  false  and  practically  perilous.  High 
Anglicans  withstood  it  because  it  disturbed  the  conven- 
tional order  of  the  Ecclesiastical  household.  Conser- 
vative Churchmen  withstood  it  because  it  introduced 
novelties,  and  to  not  a  few  minds  novel  truth  is  no  less 
obnoxious  than  novel  error.  Romanists  flouted  it  as  a 
clumsy  aping  of  manners  which  were  to  them,  being 
to  the  manner  born,  fit  and  reasonable.  Protestants 
pointed  to  it  with  a  real  or  affected  horror,  and  saw  in 
it  Episcopacy  marching  to  its  logical  end.  Wits  jested 
at  it;  theologians  argued  against  it;  canonists  thun- 
dered at  it;  bishops  charged  anent  it;  foolish  priests 
made  it  ridiculous  by  their  extravagances;  and,  mean- 
while, ritualism  steadily  advanced.^     No  environment 

'  Church  Journal,  1867,  p.  140. 


386  TKE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHtTRCH. 

was  safe.  It  spread  in  New  York ;  it  invaded  Penn- 
sylvania; it  appeared  in  Vermont;  it  broke  out  spo- 
radically in  Ohio;  even  the  dry  air  of  Connecticut  was 
not  fatal  to  it.  No  controversv  in  the  whole  history  of 
the  American  Church  has  caused  such  an  intensity  of 
feeling.  For  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  no  refuge  could  be 
found  anywhere  from  the  strife  of  tongues.  Brotherly 
kindness  and  even  Christian  Charity  seemed  to  have 
disappeared.  There  is  little  to  choose  between  the 
methods  and  temper  of  its  advocates  and  o})ponents. 
The  former  were  lilled  with  the  new  wine  of  revived 
ecclesiasticism,  and  the  latter  were  alarmed  at  the  break- 
ing up  of  old  customs  and  dismayed  at  the  ])resence,  in 
the  air,  of  a  spirit  which  they  did  not  comprehend. 
The  contention  of  the  so-called  ritualists  was,  from  the 

.     ,      first,  that  thev  were  acting  within  the  law  of 
The  ritual-  '  •  '=' 

ists'  conten-  the  Church  when  introducing  those  acts  and 
tion.  methods  which  were  denounced  as  innova- 

tions. Such  a  contention  appeared  sim])ly  preposterous 
to  old-fashioned  Churchmen.  When  the  ritualist  went 
farther  and  accused  them  of  l^eing  themselves  habitual 
law-breakers,  they  honestly  thought  that  midsummer 
madness  could  go  no  farther.  There  were  two  ques- 
tions concerning  acts  of  ritual:  Were  they  in  themselves 
fitting  and  desirable?  Were  they  jiermissible  by  the 
law  of  the  Church?  The  ritualists  lal)ored  to  prove 
the  first;  their  opponents  labored  to  disprove  the  sec- 
ond. At  first  it  seemed  hardly  worth  while  to  dis- 
prove it.  Could  any  sane  man  believe  that  these  things 
were  legal  in  the  American  Church — lights  on  the 
altar,   alb,   chasuble,   dalmatic,   and  such  like,  and  of 


JOHN  HENRY  HOPKINS 
First  Bishop  of  Vermont 


DOCTRINE  AND   CEREMONIAL.  387 

variegated  colors;  bowings  and  crossings,  the  burning 
of  incense,  the  chrism  in  (!onfirmation,  the  mixed 
chalice  and  wafer  bread?  In  ISfiO  the  venerable  Dr. 
Hopkins,  Bishop  of  Vermont,  and  Presiding  Bishop, 
was  moved  to  take  np  his  parable  concerning  the  mat- 
ter. In  October  of  that  3"ear  he  issued  his  book,  "  The 
Law  of  Ritual,"  which  in  three  months  ran  through 
Bishop  Hop-  three  editions.  Bishop  Hopkins  was  a  law- 
kins's  book,  y^r  and  a  theologian,  a  man  of  unquestioned 
candor  and  courage,  and  of  exceptional  personal  char- 
acter. That  he  was  something  of  a  doctrinaire  was 
rather  an  advantage  than  otherwise  in  enabling  him 
to  pass  judgment  on  a  burning  question  in  a  time  of 
excitement. 

The  effect  of  his  book  upon  the  Church  at  large  was 
much  that  of  Balaam's  projihesying  upon  the  Moabites. 
"For  Balak  said  unto  Balaam,  What  hast  thou  done 
unto  me?  I  took  thee  to  curse  mine  enemies,  and 
behold  thou  hast  blessed  them  altogether."  He  had 
conceded  the  whole  case.  The  law  of  the  Church 
being  what  it  was — that  is,  the  Canon  Law  of  the  Church 
of  England,  except  upon  such  points  as  that  laAV  had 
been  specifically  set  aside  or  modified — all  the  disputed 
points  were  lawful. 

If  the  situation  were  as  the  presiding  bishop  declared 
it  to  be,  the  opponents  of  ritualism  were  left  but  two 
things  to  do.^     They  might  either  organize  the  public 

'  "  The  appearance  of  the  Bisliop  of  Vermont's  little  book  is  a  serious 
thing,  as  it  opens  the  door  for  experiments  which  are  not  unlikely  to  be 
made  in  respectable  churches,  if  not  in  some  of  the  most  important  seats 
of  the  Church's  dignity  and  strength  !  " — Letter  to  a  Bishop,  Arthur 
Cleaveland  Coxe,  1866. 


888  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

opinion  of  tlie  Church  so  strongly  against  the  incom- 
ing movement  as  to  stop  it  and  turn  it  back;  or  they 
might  have  the  law  of  the  Church  so  changed  as  to  put  an 
end  to  it  by  penalties.  They  essayed  to  do  both  in  turn. 
In  October,  1866,  the  House  of  Bishops  met  in  New 
York  for  certain  special  business.  The  question  of 
Ritualism  was  discussed  at  length,  and  a  Committee 
was  appointed  to  propose  a  Declaration  upon  the  sub- 
ject. The  moving  spirit,  and  the  Secretary  of  the 
Committee,  was  the  Bishop  of  Western  Kew  York.  It 
seems  to  have  been  hoped  by  the  Bishops  that  a  formal 
expression  of  opinion  by  them  could  be  weighty  enough 
to  stop  a  movement  which  they  disap])roved,  but  which 
each  in  his  own  diocese  was  not  bold  enough  to  con- 
front officially.  This  hope,  to  Avhich  that  House  has 
fondly  clung  at  many  junctures,  failed  here  as  always. 
Their  hesitation  betrayed  itself  in  the  very  tenor  of 
The  Bishops'  the  Declaration.  In  its  preamble  they  dis- 
Deciaration.  avowed  official  character  for  their  action. 
"  Whereas,  at  a  meeting  of  the  House  of  Bishops  held 
in  the  month  of  October  the  subject  of  ritualism  was 
brought  to  the  notice  of  the  House  and  considered  with 
great  unanimity,  and 

Whereas,  on  account  of  the  absence  of  a  number  of 
the  Right  Rev.  members  of  the  House,  and  the  fact 
that  the  House  was  not  sitting  as  a  coordinate  branch 
of  the  General  Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  it  was  re- 
garded as  inexpedient  to  proceed  to  any  formal  action, 
and 

Whereas,    it   was   nevertheless   regarded    as    highly 


DOCTRINE   AND   CEREMONIAL.  389 

desira})le  that  an  expression  of  opinion  on  the  part  of 
the  Episcopate  of  this  Church  should  be  given  in  respect 
to  ritualistic  innovations;  Therefore  the  undersigned 
Bishops,  reserving  each  for  himself  his  right  as  Ordi- 
nary of  his  own  Diocese  ...  do  unite  in  the  fol- 
lowing Declaration."  ^ 

The  Declaration,  whicli  is  lengthy,  consists  of  an 
argument,  a  conclusion,  and  an  instance.  The  argu- 
ment is  that  every  national  Church  has  the  power  to 
decree  finally,  and  without  reference  to  any  other 
national  Church,  everything  which  ])ertains  to  its  own 
Doctrine,  Discipline,  and  Worship;  tliat  this  Church 
has  done  so,  with  the  result  tliat  the  ceremonies,  rites, 
and  worship  thus  established,  ordained,  and  set  forth  in 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  are  the  sole  law  of  this 
Church.  The  conclusion,  rather  hinted  at  than  ex- 
pressed, is  that  no  rite,  fashion,  ceremony,  or  position 
not  specifically  commanded  by  rubric  is  lawful.  The 
instances  noted  of  such  illegal  innovations  are  :  "  The 
use  of  incense,  and  the  burning  of  lights  in  the  order 
of  the  Holy  Communion;  reverences  to  the  Holy  Table 
or  to  the  Elements  placed  thereon;  the  adoption  of 
clerical  habits  hitherto  unknown."  Finally,  as  a  tub 
to  a  whale,  was  appended  the  notification  that,  "we 

'  The  signers  were  Smith  of  Kentucky,  Mcllvaine  and  Bedell  of  Ohio, 
Kemper  of  Wisconsin,  McCoskrey  of  Michigan,  Lee  of  Delaware,  Johns  of 
Virginia,  Eastburnof  Massachusetts,  Chase  of  New  Hampshire,  Upfold  of 
Indiana,  Payne  of  Africa,  Williams  of  Connecticut,  Davis  of  South  Caro- 
lina, Kip  of  California,  Lee  of  Iowa,  Clark  of  Rhode  Island,  Whipple  of 
Minnesota,  Talbot  of  Indiana,  Wilmer  of  Alabama,  Vail  of  Kansas,  Coxe 
of  Western  New  York,  Clarkson  of  Nebraska,  Randall  of  Colorado,  Ker- 
foot  of  Pittsburg,  Williams  of  China,  Cumius  of  Kentucky,  Armitage  of 
Wisconsin. 


390  THE   PROTESTATs^T   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

include  in  these  censures  all  departures  from  the  laws, 
rubrics  and  settled  order  of  the  Church  by  defect  as 
well  as  by  excess  of  observance.''  It  was  presently 
seen  that  the  Declaration  was  but  a  h-utimi  fulinen. 
Its  premises  were  not  historically  defensible;  its  con- 
clusion was  inconsequential;  its  instances  were  badly 
chosen.  In  any  case  the  people  against  whom  it  was 
addressed  were  neither  in  the  mood  nor  of  the  temper 
to  Ije  influenced  by  the  unsolicited  advice  of  a  score  of 
individual  Bishops,  some  of  whom  they  regarded  as 
indodi,  some  as  time-serving,  and  some  as  malignant. 
If  Ritualism  could  be  stayed  it  could  only  be  b}^  ex- 
press statute  in  that  case  made  and  provided.  Advice, 
counsel,  remonstrance  were  of  no  avail.  Still  less 
where  it  ^vas  evident  to  all  that  the  counsellors  were 
almost  without  exception  men  who  had  themselves  been 
carried  more  or  less  from  their  old  positions,  and,  having 
fetched  up  at  various  points  of  advance,  demanded  that 
every  one  else  should  stand  at  the  precise  point  where 
he  had  come  to  rest. 

In  the  General  Convention  of  1868  a  Committee  of 
five  Bishops '  was  appointed  to  consider  and  report  to 
The  Ritual  ^^e  next  Convention  ''Whether  any  addi- 
Commission.  tional  provision  for  Uniformity  by  canon 
or  otherwise  is  practicable  and  expedient."  When  the 
next  General  Convention  met  in  Baltimore  in  1871,  this 
committee  reported  to  the  House  of  Bishops  that  in  their 
judgment  such  legislation  was  not  only  practicable  and 
expedient,  but  was  imperatively  and  immediately  neces- 
sary.   "  Unless  something  is  done,  and  done  soon,  in  the 

'  Bishops  Lee  of  Delaware,  Williams,  Clark,  Odeuheimer,  Kerfoot. 


DOCTRIKE  AND   CEREMONIAL.  391 

interest  of  uniformity  tlie  diversities  of  use  now  obtain- 
ing bid  fair  to  equal  if  they  do  not  exceed  those  which 
at  the  period  of  the  Anglican  Keforination  were  re- 
garded as  an  evil  to  be  removed.  They  occasion  con- 
fusion, trouble  and  perplexity,  among  our  people,  and 
these  evils  must  increase  as  their  causes  are  multiplied. " 
They  recommend,  therefore,^  that  the  following  things 
shall  be  expressly  prohibited  by  canon:  the  use  of 
incense;  a  crucifix  in  any  part  of  the  Church;  carrying 
a  cross  in  procession  in  the  Church ;  the  use  of  orna- 
Thingsfor-  mental  lights  on  the  altar;  the  elevation  oi 
bidden.  the  elements  in  the  Holy  Communion;  the 

mixed  chalice;  ablutions  of  the  priest's  hands  or  of 
the  vessels  in  the  presence  of  the  congregation;  bow- 
ings, crossings,  genuflections,  reverences;  bowing  down 
before  or  kissing  the  Holy  Table;  celebration  of  the 
Holy  Communion  by  bishop  or  priest  alone;  choral  ser- 
vice witliout  the  consent  of  the  vestry  or  contrary  to 
the  prohibition  of  the  Bishop;  the  wearing  of  a  sur- 
plice which  does  not  reach  down  to  the  ankles  by  any 
chorister.  They  recommend,  farther,  that  canonical 
provision  be  made  touching  the  dress  of  ministers  ofli- 
ciating  in  the  congregation,  to  the  effect  that  the  only 
lawful,  official  dress  shall  be,  for  the  bishop,  the  present 
episcopal  robes,  for  all  ministers  a  white  surplice,  a 
black  or  white  stole,  a  black  cassock  not  reaching  below 
the  ankles,  a  black  gown,  and  bands,  and  that  when 
expediency  or  health  demands  it,  the  university  cap  may 
be  used.  When  the  report  was  presented  the  House  of 
Bishops  resolved  that,  "in  view  of  the  gravity  of  the 

'Gen.  Con.  Journal,  1871,  p.  599. 


392  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

subject,"  they  were  not  prepared  to  act  upon  it  with- 
out it  being  first  considered  by  a  joint  Committee  of  the 
two  houses,  and  asked  that  a  Committee  of  the  House 
of  Deputies  should  be  ap])ointed  by  ballot  for  that  pur- 
pose.^ The  Joint  Committee  thus  asked  for  was  cre- 
ated, with  Bishop  Whittingham  of  Maryland  at  the 
head  of  the  Bishops,  and  Dr.  Mead  of  Connecticut  at 
the  head  of  the  Deputies.  During  a  debate  which 
extended  over  two  weeks  the  specific  list  of  "  innova- 
tions "  which  the  Committee  of  Bishops  had  advised  to 
be  prohibited  dropped  out  of  sight.  Their  original 
recommendations  were  definitely  brought  to  a  vote  in 
the  House  of  Deputies,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr. 
Mead  of  Connecticut  and  Dr.  GoodAvin  of  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  were  defeated  by  a  small  but  sufficient  major- 
ity. Their  defeat  was  due  to  the  memorable  words 
spoken  at  the  last  moment  of  the  debate  Ijy  the  Kev. 
James  de  Koven  of  Wisconsin.  His  utterance  shnply 
made  any  repressive  canon  about  ritual  impossible  with- 
out rending  the  Church.  It  had  been  falsely  assumed 
all  along  that  the  question  at  issue  was  one  of  ceremo- 
Dr  de  Koven's  ^i^^'  whereas,  in  fact,  it  was  one  of  doctrine. 
chaUenge.  >'  ^jie  objection  which  I  have  to  this  canon 
or  any  other  like  it,"  said  Dr.  de  Koven,  "is  that  it 
bears  upon  (disputed)  doctrine,  and  seems  to  settle  it  in 
one  direction.  Now,  questions  of  doctrine  should  not 
be  settled  by  any  canon  which  does  not  bear  directly 
upon  doctrine.  If  people  teach  false  doctrine  they 
should  be  tried  and  punished  according  to  that  canon. 
I  wish  now  to  give  any  in  this  house  the  opportunity 

>  Gen.  Con.  Journal,  1871,  p.  267. 


.lAMKS    De  KOVEN 


DOCTRINE   AND   CEREMONIAL.  393 

to  present  me  for  false  doctrine  if  he  wishes,  and  in 
order  to  do  so  I  will  use  language  which  I  will  explain 
presently,  I  believe  in  '  the  real  actual  presence  of  our 
Lord  under  the  form  of  Bread  and  Wine  upon  our 
altars.  I  myself  adore,  and  if  necessary  or  my  duty, 
teach  my  jieople  to  adore  Christ  present  in  the  elements 
under  the  form  of  bread  and  wine. '  I  use  these  words 
because  they  are  a  bald  statement  of  the  Real  Presence. 
But  I  use  them  for  another  reason;  they  are  adjudi- 
cated words.  They  are  words  which,  used  by  a  divine 
of  the  Church  of  England,  have  been  tried  in  the 
highest  ecclesiastical  court  of  England,  and  hjive  been 
decided  by  that  court  to  come  within  the  limits  of  the 
truth  allowed  in  the  Church  of  England.  Sir  Robert 
Philemore  has  decided  that  if  he  should  pronounce 
these  words  wrong  he  should  be  passing  judgement,  he 
should  be  passing  sentence,  u})on  a  long  roll  of  illus- 
trious divines  who  have  adorned  our  universities  and 
fought  the  good  fight  of  our  Church,  from  Ridley  to 
Keble,  from  the  divine  whom  the  cross  at  Oxford  com- 
memorates to  the  divine  in  whose  honor  that  University 
has  just  finished  her  last  College." 

There  was  nothing  more  to  be  said.  If  holding  and 
teaching  the  doctrine  was  unlawful,  then  common  man- 
liness and  honor  demanded  the  presentment  of  Dr.  de 
Koven,  and  those  who  agreed  with  him,  for  heresy. 
If  the  doctrine  was  permissible,  then  the  ceremonial 
that  symbolized  it  was,  a  fortiori,  permissible.  The 
question  at  issue  was  the  comprehensiveness  of  the 
Church.  Was  it  broad  enough  to  contain  within  it  the 
priest  and  the  prophet  ?    At  that  time  the  priest  asked 


394  THE   PROTESTANT    EPISCOPAL    CHURCH. 

only  for  sttuKling  ground  and  living  room.    He  did  not 

dream  of  controlling  the  organization  or  of  denouncing 

the  prophet  for  looseness  of  doctrine.     lie 

The  Church's  .  ^     . 

comprehen-      ^von  his  victory  l)ecause  he  had   the  logic 

siveness.  i  •         •  i  i         i     i.  o 

on   ins  side,  and,  what   was  or  more   con- 
sequence, he  saved  the  Church  from  herself. 

The  House  of  Bishops  and  the  champions  of  Protes- 
tantism in  the  lower  house  were  let  down  easy  by  the 
practically  unanimous  adojition  of  a  vague  resolution 
that,  ' '  This  Convention  herel) y  expresses  its  decided 
condemnation  of  all  ceremonies,  observances  and  prac- 
tices which  are  fitted  to  express  a  doctrine  foreign  to 
the  authorized  standards  of  the  Church."  The  ritual 
controversy  was  ended.  A  new  lot  of  pamphlets  and 
editorial  articles  were  harvested  and  added  to  the  pile 
of  the  same  sort  ^  of  literature  which  previous  years 
had  produced,  and  have  been  forgotten  altogether. 
Ceremonial  which  had  its  root  in  sentimentalism  or 
a3sthetics  died  a  natural  death.  The  sense  of  humor 
among  Americans  is  too  strong  to  allow  that  sort  of 
folly  to  endure.  But  the  Church  had  vindicated  once 
The  end  of  again  her  comprehensiveness.  There  is  a 
controversy,  pi^ce  within  her  for  those  who  hold  to  the 
sacramental  theory  of  the  Ministry  and  the  supernat- 
ural theory  of  the  Sacraments.  They  are  at  liberty  to 
teach  and  to  symbolize  their  belief,  provided  they  do 
not  denounce  or  try  to  ])roscribe  their  more  numerous 
brethren  who  do  not  agree  with  them. 

'  I  have  not  thought  it  well  to  accumulate  references  or  footnotes  to 
that  mass  of  controversial  literature  concerning  "Ritualism"  which  was 
produced  between  1865  and  1875.  Neither  its  temper  nor  its  intrinsic  value 
was  fitted  to  save  it  from  the  oblivion  into  which  it  has  properly  fallen. 


MORGAN  DIX 


PEACE   WITH   HONOR.  395 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

PEACE  WITH   HONOR. 

"When  the  General  Convention  had,  by  its  action  in 
1871,  tacitly  affirmed  the  Clmrch's  comprehensiveness 
there  came  a  moment  of  doubt  and  hesitation  on  the 
|)art  of  some  who  had  lioped  and  expected  a  different 
issue.  High  Cliurclimen  who  liad  strenuousl}^  opposed 
Ritualism  because  it  threatened  confusion  to  existing 
order  found  little  difficulty  in  the  situation.  They 
had  opposed  certain  innovations  because  they  believed 
them  to  be  contrary  to  law.  When  it  ap])eared  that 
the  law  was  not  quite  what  they  had  believed  it  to  be 
their  verv  instinct  of  legality  led  them  to  acquiesce. 
The}"  loved  ritualism  none  the  more,  but  the  Church 
having,  albeit  grudgingly,  pronounced  its  right  to  be, 
they  would  obey  the  Church".^  While  they  did  not  like 
either  the  theory  of  the  Church  or  the  rationale  of  the 
Sacraments,  which  it  symbolized,  they  liked  still  less 
those  of  the  other  extreme.  But  there  were  not  a  few 
who  thought  that  they  never  could  l)e  reconciled  to  the 
situation.  Not  only  was  the  Church  in  danger,  but 
Evangelical  ^^^^  truth  of  God  was  jeopardized.  Justifi- 
perpiexity.  cation  by  faith,  the  articulus  stantis  vel  ca- 
dentis  ecdesice,  was  passing  out  of  sight,  or  only  found 
hearty  expression  in  the  Protestant  Churches.     Those 

'  Brand  :  Life  of  Bishop  WittiiiKham,  vol.  ii.  ch.  7. 
'  Harrison  :  Life  of  Bishop  Kerfoot,  vol.  ii.  p.  529. 


396  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

of  this  way  of  thinking  had  long  desired  that  on  that 
side  of  the  Church  where  her  frontier  marches  with 
Protestantism,  the  line  of  delimitation  should  be  drawn 
as  vaguely  as  might  be.     AVhen  Dr.  Hubbard  preached 
in  a  Baptist  meeting  house  in  Westerly,  E.  I.,  and  the 
younger  Dr.   Stephen  Tyng  invaded  the  ecclesiastical 
territory  of    the  Kev.   Messrs.    Stubbs  and  Boggs  to 
preach  in  a  Methodist  Cliurch  in  New  Jersey,  the  action 
was  characterized  as  liberality  and  church  fellowship. 
They  did  not  believe  that  any  legitimate  frontier  had 
been  trespassed  upon  because  they  did  not  believe  that 
there  actually  was  any  frontier — on  that  side.    But  now, 
when  it  became  evident  that  there  were  those  in  the 
Church  who  desired  equal  liberty  in  precisely  the  oppo- 
site direction,  they  were  filled  with  anxiety.    This  anxi- 
ety deepened  into  real  alarm  when  it  began  to  appear 
that  the  law  of  the  Church  as  it  stood  was  likely  to  be 
enforced  with  much  more  rigor  against  those  guilty 
of  "fault  by  defect  of  ritual  observance"  than  those 
from  excess.      The  tem])er  of  the  whole  Church  was 
bad.     Charity  and  magnanimity  were  sadly  wanting. 
A  pestilent  Imnd  of  partisan  journals  misnamed  "  relig- 
ious "  newspapers  were  doing  their  best,  not  in  the  in- 
terest of  truth,  but  of  ])arty  advantage.     The  "  Church 
Journal"  and  the  "  Protestant  Churchman  "  and  the 
"  Standard  of  the  Cross  "  were  doing  their  worst  to  egg 
their  several  parties  to  mutual  proscription.     'J.'he  Low 
Churchman  had  reason  to  be  afraid.     Like  the  Ritual- 
ists, they  had  been  in  the  habit  of  finding  relief  for 
their  consciences  in  divagations  from  the  letter  of  the 
rubrics.     It  began  to  look  as  if  they  would  be  estopped 


PEACE   WITH   HONOR.  397 

from  this,  and  at  the  point  where  they  were  most  sen- 
sitive. In  1868  the  Rev.  Charles  E.  Cheney  of  Chicago 
had  been  brought  to  trial  by  his  Bishop  for  having 
habitually  omitted  the  word  "  regenerate  "  in  the  use  of 
the  Baptismal  Office.  The  Evangelicals  had  fallen  into 
the  popular  habit  of  conceiving  that  the  word  "  regen- 
eration ' '  connoted  an  internal,  conscious  transforma- 
tion of  the  qualities  of  the  soul.  If  this  were  its  force 
it  could  not  properly  be  used  to  describe  the  effect  of 
Baptism  upon  an  unconscious  infant.  Their  conten- 
tion was  that,  whatever  might  be  the  grace  vouchsafed 
in  Baptism,  such  grace  was  contingent  upon  its  being 
properly  administered  by  a  duly  commissioned  person, 
and  not  at  all  upon  the  enunciation  of  any  dogmatic 
theory  pronounced  by  the  minister  in  connection  with 
the  administration  of  the  rite.  They  therefore  quietly 
omitted  the  offensive  phrase.  Their  critics  did  not, 
of  course,  call  in  question  the  validity  of  the  Ba]itism 
thus  administered,  but  they  were  scandalized,  or  affected 
to  be,  by  the  open  violation  of  rubrical  provision.  In 
more  pacific  times  the  abuse,  as  it  unquestionably  was, 
would  have  corrected  itself  by  the  better  information 
of  those  who  fell  into  it.  At  the  General  Convention 
of  1871  the  following  "  Declaration,"  signed  by  forty- 
eight  bishops,  was  communicated  to  the  Lower  House 
*'for  the  information   of    that   body   concerning   the 

action  of  the  Bishops  in  a  matter  of  much 
Bishops'  dec-  ' 

laration  on  gravity. "  "  We  the  subscribers,  being  asked 
regenera  ion.  .^  qy([qy  to  the  quieting  of  the  consciences 
of  sundry  ministers  of  the  Church,  to  declare  our  con- 
viction as  to  the  meaning  of  the  word  '  Regenerate,' 


398  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

in  the  Office  for  the  Ministration  of  Baptism  of  Infants, 
do  declare  that  in  our  opinion  the  word  '  Regenerate  ' 
is  not  there  so  used  as  to  declare  that  a  moral  change  in 
the  subject  of  Baptism  is  wrought  in  tlie  Sacrament." 

This  declaration,  bearing  as  it  did  the  signatures  of 
theoloo-ians  whose  bias  was  as  diverse  as  that  of  Whit- 
tingham  and  Lee,  Williams  and  Cummins,  would  in 
ordinary  times  have  sufficed  to  remove  the  difficulty. 
It  did  remove  it  for  all  future  time.  The  question  has 
never  been  agitated  since.  But,  unfortunately,  Cheney 
had  been  tried  and  deposed  in  the  mean  time.  And  what 
made  it  worse  was  the  fact  that  his  trial  had  been  con- 
ducted with  so  little  regard  to  equity,  by  sucli  high-hand- 
ed arbitrariness  on  the  part  of  the  Bisho})  and  court,  that 
on  an  appeal  to  the  secular  courts  it  was  set  aside  in  so  far 
as  it  affected  Mr.  Cheney's  rectorship  and  emoluments. 

The  effect  of  the  treatment  of  Dr.  Stephen  H.  Tyng, 
Jr.,  Mr.  Cheney,  and  other  like  occurrences  convinced 
not  a  few  among  the  Low  Churchmen  that  the  Church 
was  being  intentionally  made  too  strait  for  them.  So 
good  a  Churchman  and  so  temperate  a  man  as  Dr. 
Sparrow  of  Virginia  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  that 
"  There  is  a' freedom  for  the  offending  Ritualist  and  a 
stringency  of  canon  for  the  offending  Evangelical  which 
is  wholly  inexcusable.  AVhile  such  men  as  Ewer  and 
Curtis  are  allowed  to  add  or  take  away  in  their  services 
with  perfect  freedom,  others  like  Tyng  and  Cheney, 
upon  a  slight  indiscretion,  or  for  the  omission  of  a 
word,  are  immediately  under  the  Episcopal  maul  for 
discipline  or  for  destruction."  ' 

'  Sparrow's  Life  and  Correspondence,  p.  3bO. 


PEACE   WITH   HONOR.  399 

While  Cheney's  trial  was  going  on,  Dr.  Sparrow 
wrote:  "If  he  is  condemned  we  shall  have  another 
The  idea  of  Episcopal  Church  in  these  United  States, 
secession.  ^^yQ  huve  the  Romish,  the  Moravian,  the 
Creek,  the  Swedish  and  the  Protestant  Episcopal.  Why 
not  the  'Reformed  Episcopal'?""'  This  ill-omened 
word  had  already  been  spoken  in  more  than  one  quar- 
ter. Men's  hearts  were  failing  them  for  fear.  The 
fact  was  that  all  parties  in  the  Church  were  shaken 
with  ill-concealed  terror,  and  fear  is  at  once  the  most 
suspicious  as  well  as  the  most  tyrannical  of  emotions. 
Each  feared  that  his  own  favorite  beliefs  would  be 
proscribed  and  those  of  his  adversaries  allowed.  It  is 
difficult  to  say  whether,  at  the  time,  solicitude  to  defend 
his  own  truth  or  solicitude  to  sup])ress  the  other  man's 
error  predominated.  In  the  summer  of  1868  a  Con- 
ference of  Low  Churchmen  had  been  held  in  Chicago, 
presided  over  by  the  Hon.  Felix  R.  Brunot.  In  the 
discussions  of  this  Conference  the  words  "  withdrawal," 
"secession,"  "a  Reformed  Episco])al  Church"  were 
heard  more  than  once.  There  was  no  intimation  that 
such  a  project  was  seriously  entertained.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  terms  were  never  used  except  Avith  depreca- 
tion. But  the  use  of  the  word  showed  that  the  thought 
was  there.  One  member  of  the  Conference  euphemis- 
tically expressed  it:  "  We  do  not  contemplate  secession ; 
we  contemplate  being  driven  out."  ^ 

AVhen   the    proposed   drastic   canon   against   Ritual 
failed  of  adoption  in  1871,  and  when  Dr.  de  Koven's 

'  Sparrow's  Life  and  Correspondence,  p.  297. 
2  Church  Journal,  1868,  p.  197. 


400  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

o-auntlet  lay  on  the  floor  of  the  General  Convention, 
there  was  nothing  for  the  irreconcilables  to  do  but 
acquiesce  or  to  withdraw  from  the  Church.  There 
were  few,  if  any,  who  really  wished  to  secede.  It  is 
one  thing  to  talk  about  self -expat  nation  in  the  heat  of 
political  strife,  but  it  is  a  different  thing  to  actually 
embarlv  u])on  the  craft  which  is  ready  to  bear  one  away 
from  his  native  land.  Nothing  could  be  more  pathetic 
than  the  surprise  and  grief  of  the  few  who  did  secede 
when  they  discovered  that  most  of  those  who  had 
joined  with  them  in  denunciation  of  the  Church's 
abuses  proposed  to  remain  with  her. 

The  task  of  leading  out  the  malcontents  was  left  to 
one  whose  life  withiu  the  Church  had  been  brief.     The 
Rev.  Dr.  George  David  Cummins,  Assistant 
Episcopal!-      Bisho])   of    Kentucky,    had   been  a  bishop 
*°^""  seven   years,   and  had  been  in  the  Church 

fifteen  years  when  he  left  it.  It  is  not  very  clear  why 
he  came  or  why  he  went.  lie  had  been  a  Methodist 
minister,  earnest,  devout,  useful,  and  gifted  with  an  elo- 
quence more  fluent  and  fervid  than  profound  or  cogent. 
On  the  2d  of  December,  1873,  he  met,  according  to  a  call 
previously  issued  and  widely  circulated,  with  eight  cler- 
gymen and  twenty  laymen  at  the  rooms  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  of  New  York  and  organ- 
ized the  "Reformed  Episcopal  Church."^  It  does 
not  lie  in  our  way  to  follow  the  history  of  that  body. 
It  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  had  any  history.     To 

'  Aycriifg  :  Memoirs  of  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Church.  A  somewhat 
rare  volume,  which  contains  a  valuable  hut  undigested  mass  of  informa- 
tion concerning  the  whole  subject. 


PEACE  WITH   HONOR.  401 

the  candid  observer  there  seemed  at  the  time  to  be  no 
raison  cVetre  for  it,  and  none  such  has  since  appeared.' 
Its  effect  upon  the  Church  by  drawing  from  her  mem- 
bership has  not  been  appreciable.  Things  being  as  they 
were,  that  some  shoukl  be  so  ill  at  ease  in  the  Church 
during  the  early  seventies  that  they  should  feel  bound 
to  withdraw,  was  natural.  No  generous  man  will  blame 
them  overmuch.  There  was  no  need,  however,  to  add  a 
superfluous  one  to  the  already  too  numerous  Protestant 
Churches.  But  the  establishment  of  the  Reformed 
Episcopal  Church  proved  to  be  an  almost  unqualified 
gain  to  all  concerned,  except  to  those  who  composed 
it.  It  gave  a  salutary  shock  to  all  parties  in  the  dis- 
tracted Church.  While  it  Avas  a  secession  which  caused 
little  loss,  though  among  those  who  went  out  were  men 
who  could  but  ill  be  spared,  still  it  demonstrated  that 
secession  is  always  possible.  Much  of  the  ill  humors  of 
the  Church  seemed  to  have  escaped  through  the  wound 
made  in  her  body  by  the  excision.  At  any  rate,  the 
temper  of  the  Church  began  slowly  to  improve.  The 
whole  question  of  CJhurchmanship  was  taken  up  again  in 
a  better  spirit.  In  a  few  places  "ritualistic"  fanatics 
were  relentlessly  prosecuted  by  the  ancient  champions 
of  Evangelicalism,  and  in  a  few  cases  "  advp.nced  "  men 
abused  the  Church's  hospitality,  but  as  a  whole  the 
Church  passed  onward  into  a  broader  and  better  life. 

>  After  twenty-five  jears  it  now  contains  about  a  hundred  feeble  con- 
gregations scattered  through  the  United  States  and  Canada. 


402  THE   PKOTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER   XY. 

PRAYER-BOOK    REVISION. 

When  all  parties  in  the  Church  had  reached  the 
point  of  honestly  desiring  peace,  and  of  frankly  accept- 
ing comprehensiveness  as  one  of  the  Church's  notes, 
the  way  was  open  to  undertake  an  enterprise  which 
had  long  been  in  mind.  If  the  Church  ATere  to  be  the 
permanent  home  of  men  of  diverse  and  varied  tastes 
the  order  and  arrangement  of  the  house  must  needs  be 
adjusted  Avith  some  view  to  their  comfort.  No  change 
had  been  made  in  the  Prayer-Book  since  its  adoption  in 
1789.  Since  that  time  the  most  wonderfid  century  in 
human  history  had  unrolled  itself.  A  new  world  had 
come  in.  While  the  heavens  remained  the  same  a  ncAv 
earth  had  appeared.  It  is  a  condition  of  divine  Avorship 
that  the  consciousness  of  human  needs  and  the  thought 
concerning  God  should  fit  Avith  one  another.  During 
the  century  the  Church  had  enormously  expanded  her 
terrestrial  vieAv.  She  had  aAvakened  to  a  sense  of  her 
relationship  Avith  human  society,  and  a  hundred  neAV 
phases  of  that  society  confronted  her.  The  sense  of 
adoration  itself  had  taken  on  neAv  moods.  The  Prayer- 
Book  had  been  finally  put  in  form  Avith  a  view  to  serve 
as  a  vehicle  for  a  decorous  and  decent  expression 
adjusted  to  the  worship  of  a  Church  whose  self-con- 
sciousness Avas  narroAv  and  whose  range  of  emotions 
was  meagre.     All  that  had  changed.     The  Church  was 


PRAYER-BOOK    REVISION.  403 

now  concerning  herself  with  the  multiform  life  of  the 
new  age.  The  Prayer-Book  was  inadequate.  This 
"The  Prayer-  inadequacy  had  been  felt  for  a  long  while, 
Book  as  it  is."  j^^^  there  had  been  no  time  when  it  was  pos- 
sible to  correct  it.  The  mere  fact  of  the  Prayer-Book's 
changelessness  had  gained  for  it  a  sort  of  sentimental 
sanctity.  Churchmen  had  come  to  think  of  it  as  they 
did  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  was  a  finality.  The 
mere  suggestion  of  alteration  was  a  profanity. 

When  a  proposal  was  made  in  the  General  Conven- 
tion of  1865  to  correct  certain  typographical  errors  in 
the  "  Table  for  Proper  Psalms,"  it  was  gravely  decided 
that  such  discrepancies  were  ' '  intentional,  and  as  such 
made  an  integral  part  of  our  American  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer."  Changes  in  the  Prayer-Book  in  the 
interest  of  Doctrine  had  been  more  than  once  sought, 
but  had  always  been  refused.  Each  party  in  turn  was 
but  half-hearted  in  pressing  the  changes  which  it  de- 
sired, from  fear  lest  the  door  being  opened,  the  other 
party  might  bring  in  at  it  changes  which  would  be 
dangerous.  But  now  the  time  had  come  Avhen  a  more 
fundamental  need  began  to  be  felt.  The  Prayer-Book 
order  was  being  departed  from  on  this  side  and  on  that 
under  the  stress  of  an  imperative  necessity  which  no 
rubrics  could  stand  against.  Shortened  forms  for  use 
in  the  Sunday-school  had  to  be.  When  the  Prayer- 
Book  was  adopted  there  were  no  Sunday-schools. 
Shorter  and  more  flexible  forms  were  needed  for  mis- 
sions and  occasional  services.  This  need  had  not  been 
thought  of  when  the  Prayer-Book  had  been  adopted. 
The  new  wine  of  life  stirring  in  the  Church  was  burst- 


404  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

ing  the  old  bottles.  How  coukl  the  most  conservative 
Churchman  use  full  Morning  Prayer  in  a  congregation 
of  Freedmen,  not  one  in  ten  of  whom  could  read,  or 
comprehend  it  when  read  ?  How  could  a  mission 
priest  be  rubrical  at  an  evangelistic  service  ?  Changes 
in  the  customs  of  living  made  necessary  shorter  and 
more  frequent  services  on  Sunday.  To  be  rubrical 
meant  to  be  dangerously  tedious.  Morning  Prayer, 
Litany,  Sermon,  and  Holy  Communion  involved  a  de- 
votional strain  of  two  hours  or  more,  and  two  hours 
was  a  far  longer  space  of  time  for  the  people  of  1876 
than  it  had  been  for  their  more  deliberate  forbears  of 
1776.  Some  relief  was  found  in  the  fortunate  discovery 
which  the  House  of  Bishops  made  and  announced,  tiiat 
"Morning  Prayer,  Litany  and  Holy  Communion  were 
separate  and  distinct  offices,"  and  that  it  had  always 
been  lawful  to  use  one  or  more  of  them  independently 
of  the  others,  provided  that  neither  of  them  w^ere  ha- 
Separation  of  bitually  disused.  The  dictum  was  accepted 
offices.  with   some    hesitation.       Possibly   it    was 

sound,  but  custom  was  against  it,  the  rubrics  themselves 
were  a  trifle  obstinate,  and  in  any  case  the  Church 
was  not  quite  clear  as  to  the  Bishops'  authority  to 
express  an  opinion  in  the  premises.  Some  found  relief 
by  supplementing  the  liturgy  with  extemporaneous 
prayers.  They  contended  that  when  they  had  once 
delivered  the  required  tale  of  rubrical  bricks  they  were 
free  to  mould  the  clay  left  over  according  to  their  own 
design.  But  the  expedient  was  not  satisfactory.  The 
extemporaneous  prayers  were  an  unseemly  patch  on  a 
stately  garment.     But  it  became  clear  that  something 


PRAYER-BOOK   REVISION.  405 

must  be  done.  Tliere  was  grave  fear  lest  the  fetich  of 
' '  Uniformity  ' '  should  be  dishonored.  The  ideal  of 
the  average  Churchman  had  long  been  not  only  that 
"  all  men  everywhere  should  call  upon  God,"  but  they 
should  call  upon  Him  in  the  same  words  at  the  same 
time.  It  had  been  their  boast  that,  while  change  and 
confusion  existeil  elsewhere,  a  Churchman  could  go  of 
a  Sunday  into  any  Church  in  the  broad  land  with  the 
certainty  that  he  would  hear  and  join  in  a  service  every 
word  of  which  was  not  only  hallowed,  but  familiar. 
This  ideal  had  been  actually  realized,  and  for  a  consid- 
erable time  maintained.  But  now  it  was  being  threat- 
ened. Would  it  not  be  better,  they  asked,  to  allow 
the  Prayer-Book  to  be  enriched  T\nth  new  offices  and 
rendered  more  adaptable  in  its  use  of  old  ones  than 
to  run  the  risk  of  allowing  lawlessness  and  variety  to 
come  in  under  the  plea  of  necessity  ? 

This  course  commended  itself  the  more  by  the  fact 
that  now  there  were  men  capable  of  doing  the  needed 
work.  Fifty  years  earlier  there  had  been  no  Science  of 
Liturgies.  There  had  been  Commentaries  upon  the 
Prayer-Book,  and  treatises  abundant  upon  the  doc- 
trinal enormities  of  the  Missal.  But  these  were  either 
for  the  ends  of  edification  or  controversy,  and  threw 
little  light  upon  the  origin,  the  structure,  or  the  philos- 
ophy of  public  and  common  worshi]).  But  within  half 
a  century  all  that  had  been  changed.  "  Probably  no 
period  of  corresponding  length  in  the  whole  range  of 
Ene-lish  Church  historv  had  shown  itself  so  rich  in  the 
fruits  of  Liturgical  study."'     Palmer  had,  with  infi- 

'  Huntington  :  History  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  p.  82, 


406  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

nite  learning  and  pains,  traced  the  Origines  Liturgicm', 
Maskell  had  recovered  the  Rituals  of  the  past  and 
collated  them ;  Bright  had  gathered  together  and  trans- 
The  science  l^ted  the  Ancient  Collects ;  John  Mason 
ofiiturgics.  [N'eale,  Cardwell,  Stephens,  Lathbur}^  Proc- 
ter, Scudamore,  and  a  fine  company  of  scholars  and 
historians  had  created  a  science  of  Liturgies,  as  new 
and  as  real  as  the  New  Chemistry,  or  Political  Econ- 
omy. This  knowledge  had  passed  over  to  this  side  of 
the  water,  been  absorbed,  assimilated,  and  added  to. 

In  the  General  Convention  of  1877  the  following 
resolution  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  R.  Hunt- 
ington : 

''''Resolved:  that  a  joint  Committee  to  consist  of 
seven  Bishops,  seven  presbyters  and  seven  laymen  be 
chosen  to  consider  and  report  to  the  next  Convention 
what  changes,  if  any,  are  needed  in  the  rubrics  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  in  order  to  remove  existing 
difficulties  of  interpretation,  to  amend  the  Lectionary, 
and  to  provide  by  abbreviation  or  otherwise  for  the 
better  adaptation  of  the  services  of  the  Church  to  the 
wants  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men." 

This  was  the  formal  beginning  of  a  movement  for 
the  revision  of  the  Liturgy  which  engrossed  the  atten- 
tion and  absorbed  the  energies  of  the  Church  for  more 
than  a  dozen  years.  At  first  it  seemed  to  be  started 
in  vain.  Although  the  judgment  and  conscience  of 
the  Church  Avere  enlisted,  its  inertia  and  blind  con- 
servatism blocked  the  way.  The  Committee  on  the 
Prayer-Book  to  which  the  resolution  Avas  referred  rec- 
ommended through  its  chairman,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Beards- 


PRAYER-BOOK    REVISION.  407 

ley,  that  it  be  discharged  from  further  consideration  of 
the  matter,  and  the  recommendation  was  adopted.^ 

The  time  was  ripe,  and  the  Church  was  ready,  but 
the  General  Convention  did  not  know  it. 

Three  years  later,  in  1880,  the  Eev.  Dr.  Huntington 
again  moved  for  the  same  joint  commission  to  '"  consider 
and  report  to  the  next  General  Convention,  whether, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  Church  is  soon  to  enter 
Revision  upon  the  second  century  of  its  organized 
begun.  existence  in  this  country,  the  changed  condi- 

tions of  national  life  do  not  demand  certain  alterations 
in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  in  the  direction  of 
Liturgical  enrichment  and  increased  flexibility  of  use." 

The  discussions  during  the  three  years  preceding 
had  already  shown  that  the  mind  of  the  Church  was 
fixed  upon  such  movement.  The  resolution  was  passed 
and  the  Commission  ap})ointed.^ 

In  1883  the  Commission  reported  the  result  of  their 
Avork  with  a  proposed  "  Prayer-Book  Annexed" 
thereto.  The  changes  and  additions  recommended  were 
named  in  a  statement  of  forty-five  ])rinted  pages.  In 
general,  the  Booh  Annexed  provided  for  the  omission 
The  Book  ^^  ^  f^^'^'  obsolete  prayers,  and  for  a  clarifi- 
Annexed.  cation  of  rubrical  obscurities;  for  the  resto- 
ration to  the  original  form  of  certain  mutilated  or  cur- 
tailed anthems  and  canticles;  for  the  addition  of  many 

>  Journal  Gen.  Con.,  1877,  p.  132. 

"  The  commission  was  composed  of  Bishops  Williams,  Lay,  Stevens, 
Coxe,  Young,  Doane,  and  Huntington  ;  the  Rev.  Drs.  Huntington,  Dal- 
rymple,  Goodwin,  Dix,  Harwood,  and  Harrison  ;  Messrs.  Hamilton  Fish, 
Henry  Copee,  Hugh  W.  Sheffey,  E.  T.  Wilder,  John  W.  Andrews,  James 
M.  Smith,  Hill  Burgwin. 


408  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

prayers  and  thanksgivings  and  of  a  few  new  offices; 
and  chiefly  to  break  up  the  interlaced  and  cumbrous 
plan  of  binding  together  separate  services.  The  Com- 
mission specially  disavowed  any  changes  touching  the 
statements  or  standards  of  doctrine,  and  they  claimed 
to  have  been  guided  "  by  those  principles  of  liturgical 
construction  and  ritual  use  which  have  made  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  what  it  is." 

The  Commission's  proposal  met  a  not  very  hospitable 
welcome.  Literary  precisians  criticised  it  for  fault  in 
taste.  Some  attacked  it  because  the  changes  proposed 
were  so  few  and  so  trivial  that  it  was  not  worth  while 
to  upset  established  custom  in  order  to  adopt  them ;  and 
some  because  they  were  so  numerous  and  radical  that 
their  adoption  would  be  revolutionary.  Some  saw  in  it 
a  covert  attack  upon  accepted  doctrine,  and  some  faulted 
because  it  failed  to  utilize  the  opportunity  to  teach 
catholic  truth.  In  Virginia  it  was  charged  with  Mari- 
olatry;  in  Ohio  with  Latitudinarian ism;  in  Wisconsin 
with  Puritanism.^  High  Churchmen  saw  in  its  adoption 
the  final  breaking  down  of  ritual  uniformity,  and  Broad 
Churchmen  saAv  in  it  the  attempt  to  bring  in  again  the 
tyranny  of  mechanical  rule.  In  any  case  the  General 
Convention  declined  to  adopt  it.  After  weeks  passed 
in  a  minute  examination  of  the  Book,  line  by  line,  in  the 
"Committee  of  the  AYhole,"  the  subject  was  referred 
to  the  next  Convention.  When  six  more  years  had 
passed,  and  the  proposed  changes  had  been  winnowed 
by  discussion  in  newspapers,  pamphlets,  current  dis- 
cussion, and  diocesan  conventions,  a  Kevised  Prayer- 

J  Huntington:  History  of  Prayer-Book  Revision,  p.  157. 


PRAYER-BOOK   REVISION^.  409 

Book  was  finalh^  adopted,  and  the  agitation  was  ended 
for  a  long  time  to  come.  Some  gain  had  been  made. 
The  enrichment  was  but  meagre.  A  C^ollect,  Epistle, 
and  Gospel  were  added  for  the  Feast  of  Transfigura- 
tion. A  Penitential  Office  was  inserted.  Certain 
Canticles  were  restored  to  their  integrity,  and  the 
Nunc  Dlmitth  and  Magnljjcat  replaced.  Sundry  Yer- 
sicles  and  Collects  were  added.  In  the  way  of  rubrical 
ease  and  flexibility  much  was  gained.  It  was  made 
possible  to  bring  a  public  service  within  a  reasonable 
compass  of  time  without  straining  rubrics.  But  the 
greatest  gain  was  attained  unconsciously  and  uninten- 
tionally. The  fetich  of  "Uniformity"  was  quietly 
pushed  from  its  shrine.  During  the  years  of  agita- 
tion and  uncertainty,  of  dubiety  concerning  rubrics, 
of  experimental  and  tentative  regulation,  men  learned 
that  it  is  of  more  consequence  that  a  Service  should 
edify  the  particular  congregation  engaged  in  it  than 
that  it  should  coincide  at  every  period  with  the  service 
in  which  other  congregations  are  engaged  at  the  same 
hour.  They  learned  that  the  Prayer-Book  was  for  the 
Church,  and  not  the  Church  for  the  Prayer-Book. 
They  came  to  realize  that  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
is  not  rightly  a  manual  of  instruction  as  to  how  Divine 
Service  shall  be  performed,  but  an  ideal  to  which  such 
service  ought  to  conform. 

Since  this  truth  came  to  be  perceived  and  gained 
currency  the  Liturgy  has  taken  on  a  new  life.  It  has 
come  to  be  an  angel  bidding  the  devout  soul  to  prayer, 
and  ceased  to  Ije  a  tyrannous  master  of  rites  command- 
ing a  ceremonial. 


410  THE  PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUECH. 


CHAPTEE    XYI. 

THE   CHURCH  SEEKING   FELLOWSHIP. 

When  the  Church  of  England  awoke  at  the  middle 
of  the  century  to  a  consciousness  of  her  catholicity  she 
was  dismayed  at  her  isolation.  She  began  to  draw 
back  unconscioush"  from  her  Protestant  friendships, 
but  only  then  did  she  begin  to  realize  the  width  and 
depth  of  the  chasms  which  divided  her  from  the  other 
branches  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  American 
Church  was  oppressed  by  the  sense  of  loneliness  still 
more.  In  Great  Britain  the  Church  was,  and  is,  so 
great  and  strong,  and  touches  the  Christian  world  at  so 
many  points,  that  she  is,  to  a  great  degree,  sufficient 
unto  herself.  But  the  American  Church  is  small  and 
her  life  meagre.  Unlike  her  English  mother,  she  does 
not  hold  conspicuous  place  in  the  world  of  politics, 
education,  or  social  order.  The  sense  of  ecclesiastical 
loneliness  has  led  her  into  persistent  effort  to  find  fel- 
lowship and  prove  kinship  with  Churches  remote  in 
space  and  alien  in  history  and  temper.  These  wander- 
ings in  search  of  legitimate  brethren  have  only  been 
saved  from  grotesqueness  by  their  pathos.  The  result 
has  been  but  small.  Not  seldom  the  proffered  recog- 
nition has  been  answered  by  a  perfunctory  courtesy 
which  but  thinly  veiled  indifference  or  doubt  of  her 
legitimacy. 


THE  CHURCH   SEEKING  FELLOWSHIP.  411 

In  1868  a  Memorial  was  presented  to  the  General 
Convention  entreating  that  body  "  to  take  into  imme- 
diate and  prayerful  consideration  the  question  whether 
it  is  not  alike  your  duty  and  your  privilege  to  at  once 
Lookin   to       ^pen  up  formal  negotiations  with  the  author- 
theEast.         jties  of  the  Russian  Church,  and  if  it  seems 
good  to  you,  with  the  other  orthodox  Churches  of  the 
East."     In  response  a  joint  Commission  was  appointed 
to  go  or  send  upon  this  quest.      In  1871  the  Commis- 
sion reports  that  they  had  joined  with  those  of  the 
English  Church  interested  in  the  same  end,  and  that 
by  their  endeavors  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  had 
been  moved  to  send  a  brotherly  epistle  to  the  Patriarch 
of    Constantinople,   enclosing  with  it    a   copy  of  the 
Prayer-Book,    and    praying   the   good   oilices   of    the 
Orthodox  Clergy  to  baptize  the  children,  minister  to 
the  sick,  and  bury  the  dead  of  such  members  of  the 
Anglican  Communion  as  might  be  travelling  or  sojourn- 
ing in  the  Orient.    To  this  missive  the  Patriarcli  replied, 
after  the  complimentary  style  of  the  East,  that  he  ''  had 
received  with  the  greatest  joy  the  highly  esteemed  letter 
sent  by  your  Holiness  to  our  humility,  and  are  rejoiced  to 
the  bottom  of  our  heart,"  and  saying  that  the  Clergy 
of  the  East  are  always  ready,  "even  if  not  expressly 
exhorted  by  any  of  the  Venerable  British  Bishops  to 
offer  any  facility  to  bury  English   strangers  Avho  die 
here."      As   to   baptizing   their   children,  he  remains 
politely  silent.    As  to  the  Prayer-Book,  he  says  that  he 
has  examined  it  with  care  to  see  how  far  it  bears  out 
the  statement  of  its  Preface  that  it  "contains  nothing 
contrary  to  the  Word  of  God  and  to  sound  doctrine." 


412  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

The  result  of  such  examination  shows  a  condition  of 
things  which  ' '  throws  us  into  suspense. ' '  These  things 
are  the  teaching  of  the  Prayer-Book  concerning  the 
eternal  existence  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  the  number  of 
the  Sacraments;  concerning  Apostolic  Tradition;  con- 
cerning the  Divine  Eucharist;  the  discourteous  assertion 
that  "the  Churches  of  Jerusalem,  Alexandria  and 
Antioch  have  erred;"  and  the  essentials  generally  of 
"the  distinguished  Confession  of  the  XXXIX  Arti- 
cles." The  final  judgment  of  the  Patriarch  is  that 
"  we  will  therefore  pray  with  our  soul  to  the  Author 
and  Finisher  of  our  salvation  to  enlighten  the  under- 
standing of  all  with  the  light  of  His  knowledge,  and 
to  make  all  nations  of  one  speech,  of  the  one  faith,  and 
of  the  one  love,  and  of  the  one  hope  of  the  gospel;  that 
with  one  mouth  and  with  one  heart,  as  children  of  one 
and  the  same  mother,  the  Church— the  first  born  and 
Catholic  Church— we  may  glorify  the  Triune  God."  ^ 

With  this  devout  aspiration,  in  which  all  parties  con- 
cerned could  join,  even  though  it  was  not  quite  what 
some  had  asked  for,  the  negotiations  with  the  Oriental 
Church  came  to  rest.     At  that  point  they  still  stand. 

The  ecclesiastical  Ja])het  in  search  of  a  brother  next 
turned  his  steps  towards  the  "  Italian  Keform  Move- 
ment."     In  this    case,    as   there   were   no 

Italian  ^ 

reform.  bishops  likely  to  be  open  to  negotiation,  the 

Commission  appointed  consisted  of  Clergy  and  laity, 
with  the  Bishop  of  Western  New  York  as  its  honorary 
president.^ 

>  Gen.  Con.  Journal,  1871,  Appendix  vi. 
a  Gen.  Con.  Journal,  J874,  Appendix  v. 


THE   CHURCH   SEEKING   FELLOWSHIP.  413 

The  promulgation  of  the  Papal  Infalliljility  dogma 
and  the  overthrow  of  the  Papal  States  was  the  occasion 
of  a  widespread  commotion  within  the  Roman  Church. 
It  was  hoped  and  believed  that  the  agitation  and  dissat- 
isfaction among  some  of  her  bisho])s  and  many  of  her 
priests  and  laymen  might  be  brought  to  a  head  and 
guided  to  an  open  revolt.  It  presently  became  evident, 
however,  that  this  was  not  to  be.  The  centre  of 
agitation  moved  from  Italy  and  passed  to  Switzerland, 
Holland,  and  the  Rhine.  When  it  took  the  form  of 
the  "  Old  Katholik  Movement,"  it  found  the  Bishops 
of  Maryland  and  Pittsburg  to  meet  and  fraternize  with 
it  at  Bonn  and  Cologne.  The  movement  never  pos- 
sessed vitality  or  hope.  Once  again  the  American 
Church  was  disappointed  in  the  comradeship  she  hoped 
from  it. 

The  next  move  was  towards  Mexico.  Although  the 
■final  outcome  of  this  venture  was  about  equallv  disap- 
pointing, the  outlook  was  far  more  encouraging  and 
the  reasons  for  intervention  were  nobler. 

The  same  social  and  political  forces  which  overthrew 
the  Papal  rule  in  Italy  broke  down  the  authority  of  the 
Church  in  Mexico.  A  reform  movement  had  set  in 
there  after  the  overthrow  of  Santa  Anna  in  1855. 
How  Avidespread  and  powerful  it  became  it  is  not  easy 
to  know.  It  is  a  fact,  at  any  rate,  that  as  many  as 
seventy-four  priests  ventured  to  sign  a  protest  and 
memorial  against  the  abuses  and  corruptions 
of  the  Romish  Church.  When  Juarez 
came  into  power  he  took  the  malcontents  under  his 
protection,  and  gave  them  two  churches  in  the  City  of 


414  THE   PROTESTAXT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

Mexico.  Upon  his  fall,  brought  about  by  the  com^ 
bined  French,  English,  and  Spanish  influences,  the 
"Reformed  Church"  disappeared  from  sight.  Two 
intrepid  ]iriests,  Martinez  and  Dominguez,  after  two 
years  of  exile  in  the  United  States,  returned  to  Mata- 
moras  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  tried  to 
re-collect  their  scattered  flocks.  Farther  south  Aguil- 
lar,  another  [)riest  of  high  character  and  noble  repute, 
stood  fast  by  the  cause  of  reform.  Notwithstanding 
that  guarantees  of  religious  liberty  had  been  repealed, 
a  considerable  body  of  Mexicans,  how  many  is  not 
known,  maintained  a  loose  and  precarious  organization 
against  the  tyrannies  of  the  Roman  Church..  In  1866 
the  Presiding  Bishop,  Hopkins,  was  notified  that  the 
"New  Christian  Church  in  Mexico"  had  nominated 
the  presbyter  Rafael  Diaz  Martinez  for  Bishop,  and 
asked  for  his  consecration  at  the  hands  of  the  Ameri- 
can Bishops.  Bishop  Hopkins  was  obliged  to  reply 
that  there  were  canonical  hindrances  in  the  way,  and 
that  their  request  could  not  be  entertained.  Two 
years  later  a  commission  from  the  Mexican  reformers 
came  to  New  York  in  the  same  cause,  and,  by  accident, 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Rev.  Henry  C.  Riley, 
an  American  priest  who  had  been  reared  in  Chili,  and 
whose  mother-tongue  was  Spanish.  Dr.  Riley  being 
possessed  of  private  fortune,  not  being  bound  by  paro- 
chial ties  in  the  United  States,  and  being  practically 
a  South  American  Spaniard  in  temperament,  took  up 
the  case  of  the  Mexican  priests  with  ardor  and  returned 
with  them  to  Mexico.  Just  how  successful  were  the 
labors  of  himself  and  his  confreres  is  impossible  to  be 


THE   CHURCH   SEEKING   FELLOWSHIP.  415 

learned.  In  1874  they  write  of  twenty-seven  regular 
congregations,  five  of  these  being  in  the  capital  city. 
But  both  before  and  after  that  time  returns  of  the  most 
discrepant  character  were  forthcoming.  Sometimes 
it  would  apjiear  that  a  wave  of  reform  was  sweep- 
ing abroad  which  this  Church  had  only  to  guide  in 
order  to  constitute  a  new  national  Church.  But 
almost   bv   the  next  mail  would  come  the 

Contradictory  "  ^-      n       t    j 

reports  from  report  that  the  reform  had  practically  died 
Mexico.  ^^^^^     jj^^  truth  seems  to  liave  been  that  the 

conditions  necessary  to  the  creating  of  a  reformed 
Church  were  never  present.  No  Latin  people  have  ever 
conducted  to  a  successful  issue  a  revolt  against  Rome. 
The  Teuton  sharply  separates  in  thought  l)etween  his 
religious  and  his  political  life,  and  arranges  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  one  without  reference  to  the  other.  The 
Latin  steadily  confuses  them.  Thus  the  "  New  Chris- 
tian Church  in  Mexico"  felt  every  shifting  current  of 
political  air.  It  dissolved  and  recombined  in  a  way 
which  first  bewildered  and  then  exasperated  the  Amer- 
ican Church,  who  tried  to  make  businesslike  terms  with 
it.  Concerning  no  portion  of  the  Church's  missionary 
work  have  there  been  such  contradictory  reports  as 
concerning  the  Church  in  Mexico.  It  is  possible  that 
all  the  reports  were  true,  for  the  reason  that  they  were 
made  about  a  contradictory  body. 

In  August,  1874,  a  council  was  held  in  the  City  of 
Mexico  and  a  memorial  adopted  to  the  Bishops  of  the 
American  Church: 

"  We,  members  of  the  Synod  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
in  Mexico — a  branch  of    the   Christian   Church  that 


416  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

desires  to  preserve  in  all  its  purity  the  primitive  faith, 
and  in  all  their  integrity  the  order  and  ministr}^  of  the 
Church,  solicit  the  Bishops  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  United  States  to  take  such  meas- 
ures as  may  lead  to  the  granting  us  the  E})iscopate,  we 
being  ready  to  give  the  necessary  guarantees  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  faith  and  the  due  order  in  the  min- 
istry of  the  Church." 

This  memorial  was  presented  to  the  House  of  Bish- 
ops in  1874,  and  occasioned  a  lively  interest  in  the 
Church  generally.  By  Article  X  of  the  Constitution 
the  ]iower  to  consecrate  Bishops  ''  for  foreign  countries 
on  due  application  therefor"  is  lodged  in  the  House 
of  Bishops.  The  power  to  grant  the  petition  of  the 
memorial  was  unquestioned.  But  two  preliminary 
questions  were  to  be  ansAvered.  Can  this  Church, 
without  violating  Catholic  custom  and  law,  intrude  her 
Episcopate  within  the  l)orders  of  territory  where  there 
already  is  a  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church  ?  It  was 
brought  to  mind  that  when  Bishop  Southgate  had  been 
sent  to  Constantinople,  thirty  years  earlier,  it  had  only 
been  done  after  every  precaution  had  been  taken  to 
guard  against  even  the  semblance  of  intrusion  within  a 
Church  quite  as  corru])t  as  the  Koman  Church  in  Mex- 
ico; that  no  one  had  even  so  much  as  ventured  to  sug- 
gest the  consecration  of  a  bishop  for  our  mission  in 
Greece;  and  that  the  failure  of  the  Constantinople  pro- 
ject might  well  be  regarded  as  a  penalty  for  the  viola- 
tion of  Catholic  rule.  To  this  it  was  replied  that 
giving  the  Episcopate  to  a  church  already  organized 
was  quite  a  different  matter  from  going  "  bishoping  in 


THE   CHURCH    SEEKING   FELLOWSHIP.  417 

another  man's  diocese'';  that  in  any  case  it  was  too 
late  in  the  day  to  raise  the  objection,  inasmuch  as  more 
than  one-half  the  territory  of  our  own  Church  had  pos- 
sessed another  Episcopate  and  had  had  within  it  a  Cath- 
olic Church  when  it  became  part  of  the  United  States; 
that  the  same  academic  argument  which  would  preclude 
an  entrance  into  Mexico  ^vould  have  shut  us  out  from 
the  whole  ""Louisiana  Purchase,"  from  Texas,  and 
from  California.  Not  a  few  sympathized  with  the 
Bishop  of  C-onnecticut,  who  roundly  maintained  that 
the  Church  of  Home,  by  her  enormities  in  doctrine  and 
practice,  had  forfeited  her  })lace  in  the  Catholic  sister- 
hood, so  that  no  terms  of  comity  were  bounden  as 
towards  her.  But  a  second  and  more  practical  question 
took  precedence  of  the  academic  one:  Was  there  a 
Reformed  Church  in  Mexico?  Whom  and  how  many 
did  the  memorialists  represent  ? 

As  is  the  custom  in  such  affairs,  a  Commission  was 
appointed  for  the  business.'  Whether  this  Commissiou 
was  created  "■  with  power  to  act,"  or  onl}^  to  examine 
and  report,  afterwards  gave  rise  to  much  dispute.  In 
1875  Bishop  Lee  proceeded  to  Mexico  to  look  into  the 
situation.  He  found  and  visited  in  the  City  of  Mexico 
one  congregation  of  four  or  five  hundred  people, 
.  "  largely  of  the  humbler  class,  and  with  the 

commission      prevailing  type  of  feature  and  complexion 
strongly  Indian."     At  the  same  time  there 
was  handed  to  him  a  list  of  about  thirty  other  con- 
gregations througliout   the   country.     His   search   for 

'  Bishops  Wliittingham,  Lee  of  Delaware,  Bedell,  Cuxe,  Kerfoot,  and 
Littlejohn. 


418  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

facts  does  not  appear  to  have  been  either  very  thorough 
or  very  intelligent,  but  he  plainly  was  convinced  of  the 
existence  of  a  Reformed  Church  in  Mexico.  On  strength 
of  that  conviction  he  confirmed  upward  of  a  hundred 
persons,  and  ordained  seven  candidates  who  were  pre- 
sented, to  the  Diaconate  and  Priesthood.  When  he 
returned  to  the  United  States  he  brought  with  him  a 
proposed  form  of  concordat  between  the  House  of 
Bishops  and  the  "  Junta  Central  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
in  Mexico."  By  the  terms  of  this  agreement  the  party 
of  the  first  ])art  was  to  consecrate  one  or  more  persons 
as  bishops;  and  by  a  Commission  or  otherwise,  to  ad- 
minister the  affairs  of  the  new  Church  until  it  should 
possess  at  least  three  bishops  of  its  own.  The  partv  of 
the  second  ])art  pledges  itself  to  hold  to  the  Apostles' 
and  Xicene  Creeds  as  its  doctrinal  formula ;  to  maintain 
the  Episcopal  ministry  and  regimen;  and  not  to  receive 
or  establish  any  doctrines  or  articles  of  belief  contrary 
to  the  formularies  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
All  looked  promising.  It  appeared  as  though,  if 
not  a  nation,  at  any  rate  a  Church  had  been  born  in  a 
day.  But,  as  months  went  on,  uneasiness  spread. 
Bishop  Whittingham  was  disturbed  at  the  looseness  of 
doctrine  and  the  indifference  to  truth  displayed  by  the 
new  Church.^  A  copy  of  the  liturgy  in  use  had  fallen 
into  his  hands,  which  he  pronounced  monstrous. 
Bishop  Kerfoot,  with  his  plain  sense,  declared  that  he 

'  Brand  :  Life  of  Whittingham,  vol.  ii.  p.  258. 

'  "  For  myself  I  feel  bound  to  say  that  without  a  disavowment  of  such 
a  production  no  Iglesia  calling  itself  de  Jesus,  however  loud  in  its  profes- 
sion of  holiness,  catholicity,  apostolicity  and  Christianity  could  obtain  my 
consent  to  any  such  recognition  as  is  proposed." 


THE   CHURCH   SEEKING   FELLOWSHIP.  419 

had  "been  grievously  disappointed  as  to  the  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  any  Mexican  Church,  properly 
speaking,  or  in  the  sense  of  Article  X  of  our  Consti- 
tution."^ The  situation  was  difficult.  Bishop  Lee 
had  recoofnized  the  Church  and  ordained  ministers  for 
it.  Two  Candidates  for  Bishops  were  ready  and 
waiting.  If  nothing  were  done  the  new  organization 
would  either  be  reabsorbed  by  Rome  or  would  drift 
into  the  Presbyterian  or  Methodist  Churches,  both  of 
whom  were  present  and  active  in  the  field.  After  five 
years  of  hesitation  the  Commission  were  fain  to  be 
content  with  such  assurances  and  guarantees  of  doc- 
trinal soundness  as  they  could  get,  and  in  April,  1S79, 
they  consecrated  the  Rev.  Dr.  Riley  Bishop  of  the 
Valley  of  Mexico.  It  soon  became  apparent  to  all  can- 
did observers  both  that  there  reaUy  was  no 

Consecration  i  t  i  " 

of  Bishop         national  organization  which  could  be  called  a 
^  ^^'  Mexican  Church  within  the  intent  of  Article 

X  of  the  Constitution,  and  that  Bishop  Riley  was  as  far 
as  possible  from  being  the  proper  head  of  such  a  society 
as  did  exist.  The  promised  Prayer-Book  was  not  forth- 
coming; debts  were  contracted  without  authority,  and 
were  not  paid ;  property  which  was  supposed  to  belong 
to  the  Church  was  found  to  l)e  in  the  personal  name  of 
the  Bishop.  After  five  years  of  inconsequential  work, 
Bishop  Riley  resigned  his  jurisdiction  into  the  hands  of 
the  Commission  which  had  consecrated  him,  and  the 
"  Mexican  Church  "  lapsed  into  its  ])resent  status  of  a 
mission  carried  on  under  the  general  oversight  and 
authority  of  the  Presiding  Bishop. 

'  Brand  :  Life  of  Whittingham,  p.  260. 


420  THE   PROTESTAXT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

While  the  Church  was  waiting  in  humble  attitude 
before  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  coquetting 
ponderously  with  the  Old  Catholics  and  dreaming  of 
an  Episcopal  Church  in  Mexico,  an  incomprehensible 
perversity  led  her  to  call  in  question  and  then  sus])end 
her  fraternal  relations  with  the  two  Episcopal  Churches 
at  her  door.  For  half  a  century  Moravian  and  Swed- 
ish Orders  had  been  acknowledged  without  question. 
The  Moravians  were  a  small  body,  and  their  path  rarely 
crossed  that  of  this  Church,  but  the  validity  of  their 
Episcopate  had  always  Ijeen  recognized,  and  was  in 
fact  beyond  question. ^  With  the  Church  of  Sweden 
Anglican  relations  had  been  most  intimate  in  the  ]mst, 
and  the  immigration  of  thousands  of  Swedes  made  it 
all  the  more  important  that  those  relations  should  be 
maintained.  In  Colonial  times  the  Bishop  of  London 
had  commissioned  priests  in  Swedish  orders  to  officiate 
in  American  Churches,^  and  the  Society  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel  had  paid  them  their  stipends.^  In 
1837  the  Bishop  of  London  had  officially  requested  a 
bishop  of  the  Swedish  Church  to  confirm  for  him.  In 
1861  the  punctilious  Bishop  of  Illinois  accepted  the 
Kev.  Jacob  Bredberg  "  on  his  letters  of  orders  from  the 
Bishop  of  Skara,"  and  the  same  year  Bishop  White- 
house  celebrated  the  Holy  Communion  in  the  royal 
chapel  of  Stockholm.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  the 
Church  began  twenty  years  ago  to  feel,  or  at  least  to 
affect,  a  doubt  of    the  validity  of  the  Moravian  and 

>  Ritter  :  Moravian  Church  in  Philadelphia,  p.  223. 

'  De  Schweinitz  :  History  of  the  Unitas  Fratrem,  p.  647. 

'•'  Past  and  Present  :  G.  Hammerskold,  p.  7. 

'  Records  of  Holy  Trinity  :  Old  Swedes  Church,  p.  26. 


TPIE   CHURCH   SEEKING   FELLOWSHIP.  421 

Swedish  pedigree.     Commissions  were  appointed  upon 

both  questions.      The  otfence  to  both  was  great,  and 

would  seem  to  have  been  gratuitous.     Those  whom  the 

Church  had  heretofore  treated  as  sisters  suddenly  had 

the  legitimacy  of  their  birth  called  in  question.    Thus  far 

neither  Commission  has  seen  its  way  to  report  yes  or  no. 

Meanwhile    the    Church's    isolation    weighed    upon 

her   more    and   more.      In   the   midst   of  a   Christian 

nation   she  was    without    companionship.       Realizing 

more  intensely  than  any  other  section  of   American 

Christianity  the  imperativeness  of  organic  unity,   she 

appeared  of  all  others  to  be  most  entirely  outside  the 

sphere  of  ]n*actical  friendship.      She  had  been  led  by 

ecclesiastical  doctrinaires  into  a  false   position.     Her 

natural  and  historical  relations  were  with  the  Protestant 

world  in  the  midst  of  which  she  lived.    That  this  was  her 

own  conviction  when  permitted  to  speak  her  real  mind 

appeared  at  the  General  Convention  of  1886.     From  the 

Diocese  of  Indiana  came  a  memorial  praying  the  Church 

in  this  General  Convention  assembled  ''  to  issue  to  the 

Christian  world  an  open  letter  embodying  her  princi- 

iiles,  her  suo^^estions,  and  her  pravers  for 
The  Church       ^  "^^  r.,,      t..  ^  t-"^  i 

unity  move-     Christian  unity.       The  Diocese  of  Kentucky 

"^®"*"  presented  a  similar  petition,  and  reminded 

the  Convention  that  Central  Pennsylvania  had  adopted 
a  like  resolution.  The  Diocese  of  Louisiana  sent  up  a 
memorial  begging  the  Convention  to  instruct  its  Com- 
mittee on  Ecclesiastical  Relationship  to  "  abandon  the 
passive  policy  hithertofore  followed  in  respect  to  those 
bodies  of  Christians  generally  recognized  as  Evangel- 
icals; and  to  send  overtures  in  writing  to  the  governing 


422  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

bodies  of  the  said  several  denoininatioas,  inviting  them 
to  conference  on  the  matter  of  Church  Unity."     Peti- 
tions also  came  up  from  Texas,  low^a,  and  Pennsylvania. 
But  the  unmistakable  temper  of  the  Church  was  shown 
by  a  General  Memorial,  signed  by  thirty -two  bishops 
and  eleven  hundred  clergy  and  more  than  three  thou- 
sand laymen,  praying  the  General  Convention  to  take 
"such  action  as  it  may  deem  expedient  to  further  the 
organic  unity  of  Christians  in  this  land."     The  memo- 
rialists urged  this  action  on  the  statesmanlike  grounds 
that  in  this  new  land  denominational  dissensions  have 
not  yet  crystallized  into  hardness  as  in  older  lands; 
that  a  desire  for  unity  is  plainly  growing;  that  a  more 
lively  interest  is  being  shown  by  those  without  in  the 
doings  of  the  Church;  that  Churchmen  have  become 
more  ready  to  acknowledge  the  vast  amount  of  truth 
which  other  Christian'  bodies  hold  in  common   with 
them;  that  party  lines  are  vanishing  within  the  Church; 
that  the  Church  Idea  and  the  desire  for  liturgical  ex- 
pression  are   spreading  everywhere;    that   there   is  a 
universal  discontent  with  long  and  meta])hysical  Con- 
fessions, and  the  desire  to  be  content  with  the  simple 
and  primitive  Creeds. 

All  these  memorials  were  referred  to  the  "  Commit- 
tee on  the  State  of  the  Church."  A  "  Committee  on 
Ecclesiastical  Kelations  "  had  been  in  existence  since 
ISTi,  bat  it  had  thus  far  manifested  neither  the  ability 
nor  the  wish  to  discover  any  relations,  except  in  some 
far  country.  The  temper  of  the  Church  now  de- 
manded that  something  be  done.  It  was  therefore 
resolved  to  create  a  joint  Commission  on    Christian 


THE   CHURCH   SEEKING   FELLOWSHIP.  423 

Unity,  whose  polic}'  should  be  to  move  out  into  the  open 
and  bear  to  the  divided  Christian  world  a  definite  mes- 
sage of  good  will  and  a  proposal  for  union.  Mean- 
while the  House  of  Bishops  had  been  considering  the 
same  matter,  and  now  announced  the  following: 

"Declaration  to  whom  it  ma}^  concern,  and  espe- 
cially to  our  fellow  Christians  of  the  different  Com- 
munions in  our  land  who,  in  their  several  spheres,  have 
contended  for  the  religion  of  Christ. 

"1.  Our  earnest  desire  that  the  Saviour's  prayer  that 
we  all  may  be  one,  may,  in  its  deepest  and  truest 
sense,  be  speedily  fulfilled ; 

"2.  That  we  believe  that  all  who  have  been  duly 
baptised  with  water  in  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of 

The  Quadri-  ^^^  ^^^  '^^^^  ^^  ^^^®  Holy  Ghost  are  members 
lateral.  ^f  the  Holy  Catholic  Church; 

"  3.  That  in  all  things  of  human  ordering  or  of 
human  choice  relating  to  modes  of  Avorship  and  disci- 
pline, and  to  traditional  customs,  this  Church  is  ready, 
in  the  spirit  of  love  and  humility,  to  forego  all  prefer- 
ences of  her  own ; 

' '  4.  That  this  Church  does  not  seek  to  absorb  other 
communions,  but  rather,  cociperating  with  them  on  the 
basis  of  common  faith  and  order,  to  discountenance 
schism,  to  heal  the  wounds  of  the  body  of  Christ,  and 
to  promote  the  Charity  which  is  the  chief  of  Christian 
graces  and  the  visible  manifestation  of  Christ  in  the 
world. 

"  But  furthermore  we  do  hereby  affirm  that  the 
Christian  unity  now  so  earnestly  desired  can  be  restored 
only  by  the  return  of  all  Christian  communions  to  the 


424         THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

principle  of  unity  exemplilied  by  the  undivided  Cath- 
olic Church  during  the  first  ages  of  its  existence,  which 
principles  we  believe  to  be  the  substantial  deposit  of 
Christian  faith  and  rule  committed  by  Christ  and  His 
Apostles  to  the  Church  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 

"  As  inherent  parts  of  the  sacred  deposit,  and  there- 
fore as  essential  to  the  restoration  of  unit}^  among  the 
divided  branches  of  Christendom,  we  account  the  fol- 
lowing, to  wit: — 

"I.  The  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
tament as  the  revealed  word  of  God ; 

"  II.  The  Nicene  Creed  as  the  sufficient  statement  of 
the  Christian  faith; 

"  III.  The  two  Sacraments,  baptism  and  the  Sujjper 
of  the  Lord,  ministered  with  unfailing  use  of  Christ's 
words  and  of  the  elements  ordained  by  Him; 

"  lY.  The  historic  episcopate,  locally  adapted  in  the 
method  of  its  administration  to  the  varying  needs  of 
the  nations  and  peoples  called  of  God  into  the  unity 
of  His  Church. 

"Furthermore,  deeply  grieved  by  the  sad  divisions 
which  afflict  the  Christian  Church  in  our  own  land,  we 
hereby  declare  our  desire  and  readiness,  so  soon  as  there 
shall  be  any  authorized  response  to  this  Declaration,  to 
enter  into  brotherly  conference  with  all  or  any  Chris- 
tian bodies  seeking  the  restoration  of  the  organic  unity 
of  the  Church." 

This  declaration  was  adopted  by  the  Lower  House, 
and  the  joint  Commission  aj^pointed  and  instructed  to 
enter  into  negotiations  in  any  directions  which  might 
open.     No  action  of  so  great  moment  and  so  pregnant 


THE   CHURCH   SEEKING   FELLOWSHIP.  425 

of  possibilities  liad  been  taken  by  tlie  American  Church 
since  its  organization.  There  were  but  few  who  dis- 
cerned, its  wide  implications.  When  they  began  to 
appear,  not  a  ie^x  stood  aghast  at  what  had  been  done 
and  what  it  might  involve.  Was  the  declaration  an 
ultimatum  upon  >vhich  the  Church  was  willing  to 
coalesce  A^'ith  any  organization  who  might  accept  it? 
If  so,  did  it,  in  its  enumeration  of  things  necessary, 
mean  what  it  said?  In  that  case,  it  was  contended, 
the  reunited  Church  might  be  found  not  only  without 
the  Prayer-Book,  but  without  any  liturgy;  without  any 
provision  for  Confirmation;  without  the  Athanasian 
Creed  or  the  XXXIX  Articles;  Avithout  any  of  those 
valued  and  endeared  Ecclesiastical  customs  and  arrange- 
ments which  Churchmen  had  been  accustomed  to  think 
of  as  part  of  tlie  very  Church  herself.  It  was  nothing 
less  than  a  proposal  to  commit  suicide  in  the  hope  of  a 
vague  and  uncertain  metempsychosis.  It  offered  to 
abandon  all  distinctive  Churchmanship  in  the  interest 
of  an  iridescent  dream.  Even  the  President  of  the 
House  of  Deputies,  upon  whom  devolved  tlie  duty  of 
naming  the  men  who  were  to  execute  it,  disapproved 
of  the  scheme  utterly. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  suicidal  in  the  sense  that 
it  proposed  to  the  Church  to  lose  her  life  that  she 
might  find  it  again.  That  suggestion  has  always 
seemed  a  hard  saying  to  practical  men.  The  more  the 
pro]iosition  was  discussed  the  more  doubtful  it  became 
whether  the  Church  either  would  or  could  stand  to  her 
offer  in  case  it  should  be  accepted  by  any  large  denomi- 
nation. 


426  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

Debate  quickly  concentrated  itself  on  one  unfortu- 
nate and  ambiguous  phrase.  When  the  Church  spoke 
of  the  "Historic  Episcopate"  it  had  in  its  mind  that 
threefold  historic  ministry  of  unbroken  Catholic  cus- 
tom— bishops,  priests,  and  deacons.  Protestant  writers 
and  speakers,  on  the  other  hand,  not  being  familiar  with 
that  connotation,  took  the  words  for  the  face  of  them, 
and  saw  in  the  "  Quadrilateral "  nothing  but  an  impu- 
dent proposal  by  the  bishops  to  lord  it  over  the  rest  of 
God's  heritage.  The  Baptists  responded  to  the  over- 
ture with  fraternal  greeting,  courteous  but  non-com- 
mittal. The  Methodists  replied  by  reminding  us  that 
they  possessed  an  Episcopate  already  quite  good  enough 
for  their  purposes.  The  Presbyterian  General  Assem- 
bly appointed  a  Committee  of  great  dignity  and  char- 
acter to  confer  with  the  Joint  Commission.  After 
several  3^ ears  of  negotiation,  sometimes  hopeful  and 
sometimes  otherwise,  the  Committees  came  to  a  dead- 
lock upon  the  demand  that,  as  a  condition  of  further 
correspondence,  the  Church  must  acknowledge  practi- 
cally the  validity  of  Presbyterian  orders,  and  their 
Committee  was  discharged.  In  the  Convention  of 
1892  the  Eev.  Dr.  Huntington  offered  an  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  which  would  have  enabled  any 
bishop  without  further  ado  to  act  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Declaration  by  receiving  under  his  care  any  congrega- 
tion which  might  be  willing  to  accept  its  terms,  even 
thoug-h  it  did  not  choose  to  conform  to  the  ritual  and 
custom  of  the  Church  or  to  become  a  component  part 
of  the  organization.  The  amendment  was  lost  by  the 
failure  of  four  dioceses  to  agree,  and  thus  preventing  a 


THE   CHURCH   SEEKING    FELLOWSHIP.  427 

majority  vote.^  In  1895  substantially  the  same  propo- 
sition Avas  offered  again  in  a  modified  form,  and  met  a 
more  decided  rejection. 

The  Joint  Commission  still  continnes.  The  logic  of 
events  seems  to  be  drawing  the  Church  towards  a  point 
where  she  must  either  take  practical  measures  to  make 
good  her  proposal  to  the  Protestant  world  or  definitely 
withdraw  her  proffer.  Meanwhile  her  action  has  had 
the  effect  to  bring  the  question  of  Church  unity  out  of 
the  region  of  pious  speculation  and  compel  a  place  for 
it  in  practical  ecclesiastical  ]iolitics. 

1  Gen.  Con.  Journal,  1892,  p.  329. 


428  THE    PROTESTANT    EPISCOPAL    CHURCH 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  RECENT   PAST. 

By  THE  beginning  of  the  new  century  it  had  become 
evident  to  every  one  that  the  ''Quadrilateral"  was  but  a 
hrutum  fulmen.  Church  Unity  could  never  be  achieved 
in  that  way.  The  Roman  Church  had  already  officially 
denied  the  validity  of  our  Episcopate.  The  Protestant 
Churches  could  never  be  brovight  to  any  action  which 
would  even  by  inference  acknowledge  even  a  suspicion 
of  the  sufficiency  of  their  own  orders.  And  it  had  be- 
come plain  that  this  Church  would  never  translate  the 
generous  spirit  of  the  Quadrilateral  into  official  action. 
This,  therefore,  seemed  to  be  a  time  to  begin  the  whole 
matter  again. 

Accordingly  there  was  created  by  the  General  Con- 
vention a  "Commission  on  Faith  and  Order."  The 
avowed  purpose  of  this  Commission,  which 

Commission  .         n  •        ',  i 

on  Faith         was    exceptionally    strong    in    its    personnel, 

and  Order.  ^  "^  '^  / 

was,  not  to  propose  terms  of  reunion,  but  to 
seek  consultation  with  representatives  of  the  Christian 
churches  of  the  world,  to  ascertain  as  nearly  as  possible 
precisely  what  each  one  did  really  hold  to  be  essential  in 
Doctrine  and  Discipline;  in  a  word,  to  strive  toward 
a  mutual  understanding.  To  the  advances  of  the  Com- 
mission practically  all  the  churches  of  the  world  re- 
sponded.    Even  the  Roman  Catholics  gave  at  least  a 


THE   RECENT   PAST  429 

civil  reply.  The  whole  Christian  world  was  in  fact 
slowly  realizing  the  evils  of  separation.  In  every  city, 
town,  and  village  of  the  land  are  three  times  as  many 
places  of  worship  as  the  needs  of  the  community  require. 
The  consequence  is  rivalry,  jealousy,  wastefulness, 
poverty,  and  impotence.  The  Commission  found  the 
evil  recognized  and  deplored  by  nearly  all.  It  was  still 
hopefully  conferring  and  corresponding,  when  the 
European  War  turned  men's  thoughts  to  other  things. 
But  this  gave  a  demonstration  on  a  great  scale,  to  those 
who  could  see,  that  the  unity  of  Christendom  when 
it  arrives  will  be  the  outcome  not  of  any  definitely  for- 
mulated "Faith"  or  any  well  described  system  of 
''Order,"  but  of  a  "Way  of  Life." 

Meanwhile  the  stream  of  the  Church's  life  has  run 
in  other  channels.  These  have  been  so  many,  so  di- 
verse, and  so  interlaced  that  it  is  difficult  to  determine 
which  is  the  main  current.  The  most  the  chronicler 
can  do  is  to  point  to  each  one  and  indicate  its  present 
trend.  He  may  also  hazard  a  guess  concerning  the  issue 
of  each. 

The  first  and  most  important  of  these  may  be  in- 
dicated by  the  familiar  and  comprehensive  term. 
Church  ''Church  Work."     The  phrase  is  modern  be- 

cause  the  thing  is  modern.  The  average 
parish  as  it  is  now  and  as  it  was  forty  years  ago  would 
scarcely  recognize  itself.  Then  it  was  composed  of  a 
group,  large  or  small,  of  families  who  had  built  and 
who  owned  their  church.  Each  one  either  owned  or 
rented  outright  his  "pew."  The  church  was  open  once 
a  week  for  services.      There  was  a  "Dorcas   Society" 


430  THE   PEOTESTANT   EPISCOPAL    CHURCH 

of  women  who  provided  garments  for  the  poor.  There 
was  a  Sunday  school  in  which  the  children  of  the 
parish  were  tanght  the  Catechism  and  the  Creed,  and 
were  told  Bible  stories.  In  a  few  cases  a  "Mission 
School"  was  maintained  at  some  point  remote  from  the 
parish  church.  But  the  parish  had  little  consciousness 
of  organic  life  and  no  consciousness  of  corporate  re- 
sponsibility. The  Minister's  duty  was  thought  to  be 
fulfilled  when  he  preached  two  sermons  on  Sunday, 
baptized  the  children  of  his  own  people,  administered 
the  Holy  Communion  once  a  month,  and  held  service 
twice  a  week  in  Lent.  The  private  Christian  thought 
his  duty  fulfilled  when  he  confessed  his  own  sins,  en- 
deavored to  live  a  sober,  righteous,  and  godly  life,  and 
gave  an  alms  to  the  beggar  at  his  gate. 

But  a  new  impulse  was  moving  in  society  at  large 

which  found  expression  in  the  Church  of  England  and 

in  this  Church  first  of  all  Christian  bodies.     The  age 

of  corporations  had  set  in.     Individual  ownership  was 

giving  way  to  incorporated  companies.     In- 

A^6  of  Oct. 

Corporate       dividual    laborers   were    combining    in   labor 

Action,  ...  . 

unions.  The  individual  was  coming  to  count 
for  less  and  less,  and  the  organization  for  more  and 
more.  It  was  not  alone  a  quickening  of  the  spirit  of 
altruism  among  Churchmen,  but  also  that  they  were 
moved  unconsciously  by  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The  re- 
sult has  been  a  transformation  of  the  conception  of  the 
Church's  function  in  society.  It  expressed  itself  first  in 
organized  parochial  action  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  in 
its  own  neighborhood.  "Sodalities"  and  "guilds"  were 
formed,   district  visitors  were  appointed,  stated  meet- 


THE   RECENT   PAST  431 

ings  were  fixed  for  consultation,  plans,  and  reports. 
The  very  word  ''gnild"  was  new,  because  the  thing 
for  which  the  word  stood  was  new  in  the  Church. 
These  organized  activities  grew  and  multiplied, — for 
the  care  of  boys,  of  girls,  of  working  men,  communi- 
cants' classes,  clubs,  brotherhoods.  Soon  it  became 
evident  that  these  must  have  headquarters  convenient 
and  the  erection  of  "Parish  Houses"  began.  Though 
now  deemed  part  of  the  ordinary  equipment  of  a  parish, 
and  often  built  before  the  church  itself,  hardly  one 
could  be  found  in  the  country  more  than  fifty  years  old. 
They  have  now  come  to  provide  chapels  (sometimes), 
theatres,  baths,  tennis  courts,  reading  rooms,  quarters 
for  baseball  clubs  and  cross-country  runners.  The  re- 
sult has  come  about  that  the  conception  of  the  Minister's 
function  has  been  transformed.  He  is  no  longer  the 
preacher,  pastor,  and  shepherd  of  a  flock,  but  the  Gen- 
eral Manager  of  a  complex  and  complicated  organiza- 
tion.    The  qualities  which  make  him  efficient 

Tne 

prleir  ^^^  successful  are  other  than  those  once  de- 
manded. This  has  produced  a  profound 
change  in  the  method  of  his  training  and  equipment. 
Fortunate  is  his  parish  if  he  can  still  retain  his  power 
to  receive  his  message  from  God  and  deliver  it  persua- 
sively to  men  from  his  pulpit.  There  are  those  who 
can  do  so,  but  the  price  of  organized  efficiency  must  be 
paid  at  the  cost  of  the  personal  power  of  the  individual. 
To  the  surprise  of  many,  this  outburst  of  Church 
work  was  presently  followed  by  an  alarming  decrease 
of  candidates  for  the  Ministry.  The  Eeport  on  the  State 
of  the  Church  to  the  General  Convention  in  1895  first 


432  THE   PROTESTANT    EPISCOPAL    CHURCH 

called  serious  attention  to  the  situation.  This  has  been 
rejDeated  at  every  General  Convention  since.  Of  course 
this  is  due  to  many  causes,  the  doubtfulness  concerning 
doctrine,  the  scientific  spirit  of  the  age,  the  uncertainty 
of  the  Minister's  message,  the  seduction  of  wealth,  and 
a  hundred  others.  But  the  one  with  which  the  Church 
is  concerned  is  that  the  Minister  of  today  is  a  new 
kind  of  creature,  never  before  kno^\m  in  the  Church's 
history,  and  there  is  a  natural  hesitancy  about  enlisting 
in  its  ranks  or  undertaking  its  multitudinous  and  ill 
defined  duties.  It  may  well  be  expected  that  the  new 
movement,  like  all  new  movements,  will  in  the  end 
reach  a  more  balanced  accord  with  the  Church's  nor- 
mal life. 

Closely  related  to  the  newly  awakened   activity  in 

Church  work  was  the  rise  and  spread  of  "The  Free 

Church  Svstem."     In  an  earlier  day  parishes 

FrG6  "^ 

Church  had  been  formed  and  maintained  by  a  very 

System.  ,.       , 

simi)le  method.    A  group  of  Cliurch  people 

finding  themselves  living  near  one  another  decided  to 
build  a  church.  Each  one,  for  his  contribution  to  the 
cost,  became  the  o'\\mer  or  the  perpetual  tenant  of  a  pew. 
This  pew  became  the  church  home  of  himself,  his 
family,  his  children,  and  maybe  his  children's  children. 
When  for  any  cause  a  family  moved  away,  his  pew 
was  rented  per  annum  to  another  family.  The  sense 
of  proprietorship  or  tenant  right  was  as  real  toward 
his  pew  as  toward  his  house.  It  is  true  that  hospitality 
was  gladly  offered  to  the  stranger,  but  it  was  as  hos- 
pitality and  not  as  of  right.  It  must  be  said  that  under 
this  system  the  Church  grew  with  as  large  a  ratio  as, 


THE   RECENT   PAST  433 

and  with  a  firmer  stability  than,  since.  The  one  great 
virtue  of  the  method  was  that  where  a  chnrch  was 
needed  it  was  built  by  the  people  themselves  without 
thought  of  appealing  to  the  Church  at  large,  and  that 
churches  were  not  built  where  they  were  not  needed. 
Forty  years  ago  ninetecn-twentieths  of  the  parishes 
were  of  this  sort.  Now  nine-tenths  of  them  are  "free 
churches." 

This  change  has  been  due  largely  to  two  causes, 
operating  simultaneously.  In  the  first  it  was  a  prac- 
tical need.  As  soon  as  any  rector  and  parish  became 
touched  by  the  impulse  of  social  service,  and  began 
seriously  the  task  of  winning  and  serving  the  multi- 
tude, the  question  arose  as  to  where  to  put  them  when 
they  gathered  them  together.  The  pew  holder,  even 
if  hospitably  inclined,  often  found  the  guests  whom 
the  usher  brought  to  the  door  of  his  pew  not  altogether 
to  his  taste.  In  any  case  the  family  idea  associated  with 
the  pew  was  disturbed  and  irritated  when  strangers 
were  habitually  placed  to  sit  between  himself  and  his 
children.  Beside  that,  the  new  people  whom  it  was 
sought  to  bring  in  were  apt  to  shy  at  the  church  door. 
They  would  come  freely  to  a  parish  house  or  guild 
room,  but  they  shrank  instinctively  from  intruding  in 
a  pew,  just  as  they  would  in  a  parlor. 

And  this  coincided  in  time  with  the  rise  of  that 
feeling  which  has  now  spread  throughout  society,  and 
which  in  a  vague  way  questions  the  right  of  individual 
o^vnership  in  any  thing.  It  may  seem  a  far  cry  from 
Henry  George  and   Tolstoi  to   free  churches,   but  the 


434  THE    PROTE«TA^•T    EPISCOPAL    CIIUKCII 

nexus  is  a  very  real  one.  The  life  of  the  world  and  the 
„^  „  life    of    the    Church    are    far    more    closely 

The  New  'J 

Conscience  ii^terblended  than  is  generally  realized. 
Whenever  a  now  fashion  of  thought  or 
emotion  comes  to  prevail  in  the  one  it  shows  itself  in 
the  action  of  the  other.  Whether  the  free  church 
policy  has  been  for  help  or  hindrance  is  not  for  the 
historian  to  decide.  The  present  facts  show  that  the 
oldest  and  strongest  parishes,  chiefly  in  the  East  and 
South,  still  maintain  the  old  system  of  pew  rental,  that 
their  hospitality  to  strangers  has  been  immensely  in- 
creased, that  they  appear  to  be  quite  as  well  filled  as 
are  the  free  churches,  and  that  from  them  comes  almost 
the  whole  of  the  gifts  which  support  missions  and  also 
a  large  proportion  of  the  free  churches. 

On  the  other  hand,  by  means  of  free  churches  closer 
touch  has  been  attained  with  strata  of  society  which 
would  not  otherwise  have  been  reached.  In  any  case 
sober  reflection  would  show  that  the  one  method  is  as 
legitimate  as  the  other,  that  no  question  of  principle 
is  really  involved,  and  that  practical  expediency  will 
in  the  long  run  determine  whether  either  of  these 
methods,  or  some  other,  will  be  best  for  the  Church. 

The  newly  aroused  social  conscience  of  the  Church 

early    found    itself    confronted    with    the    question    of 

Marriage  and  Divorce.     Within  the  period 

and  before   us   she  has   felt   much,    and  thought 

Divorce. 

somewhat,     upon    this     perplexing    subject. 

Among  all  the  changes  occurring  within  the  last  amaz- 
ing half  century,  none  is  more  significant  than  that  in 
the  conception  of  the  relation  of  man  and  woman  in 


THE   EECEJS'T   PAST  435 

society.  This  has  showed  itself  preeminently  in  the  slow 
but  steady  loosening  of  the  marriage  bond.  This 
phenomenon  is  manifest  in  a  large  part  of  the  Christian 
world.  In  France,  where  divorce  was  theoretically  im- 
possible, it  has  become  comparatively  common.  In  Eng- 
land, where  it  was  practically  impossible,  it  has  become 
easy.  But  it  is  in  the  United  States  that  the  movement 
has  shown  itself  in  its  most  rampant  form.  The  increas- 
ing multiplicity  of  divorce  was  already  occupying  the 
attention  of  economists,  jurists,  and  sociologists  when 
the  Church  first  seriously  essayed  to  deal  with  it.  There- 
tofore there  had  been  no  specific  law  or  canon  dealing 
with  the  subject.  The  fundamental  law  of  the  Prayer- 
Book  rubric  which  empowers  the  priest  to  repel  from 
the  Holy  Communion  ''all  notorious  evil  livers"  had 
been  deemed  sufficient.  This  discipline  was  presently 
decided  to  be  inadequate,  and  a  canon  was  enacted  for- 
bidding the  Minister  to  marry  any  man  or  v/oman  who 
had  been  divorced  from  a  partner  still  alive,  "except 
the  innocent  party  in  the  case  of  divorce  for  the  cause 
of  adultery."  According  to  the  spirit  of  the  Church's 
immemorial  discipline  it  was  left  to  the  priest  to  dis- 
cover and  jDass  judgment  upon  the  facts  in  any  such 
case,  subject  to  an  appeal  to  the  Ordinary  by  any  man 
or  woman  Avho  felt  aggrieved  by  his  decision.  But  as 
the  matter  more  and  more  engrossed  the  attention  of 
the  Church,  the  regulation  of  the  Minister  became  in- 
creasingly rigorous.  Instead  of  leaving  the  appeal  to 
the  offended  man  or  woman  the  Minister  was  com- 
manded to  refer  each  such  application  for  marriage  to 
the  Bishop  at  once  for  his  godly  judgment  thereupon. 


436  THE    PROTESTxKXT    EPISCOPAL    CllUKCH 

Then  it  was  enacted  still  further  that  not  even  the 
alleged  ^'innocent  party"  should  be  remarried  by  any 
Minister  of  this  Church  until,  jirst,  a  year  had  elapsed 
from  the  divorce,  second,  that  "evidence  touching  the 
facts  in  the  case,  including,  if  practicable,  a  copy  of 
the  Court's  Decree  and  Record,  be  laid  before  the 
Ecclesiastical  Authority,"  third,  ''that  the  said  Eccle- 
siastical Court  take  legal  advice  thereupon,  and  declare 
in  writing  that  the  applicant  is  really  the  innocent 
party."  Finally  it  is  enacted  that  the  Minister  may 
in  his  discretion  refuse  to  marry  any  divorced  person 
whatever  if  he  does  not  want  to. 

Up  to  this  point,  in  so  far  as  the  Church's  legislation 
is  concerned,  it  was  all  plain  sailing.  It  came  within 
the  province  of  Clerical  Discipline,  and  there  was  .no 
gainsaying  it.  But  when  it  came  to  the  discipline  of 
the  laity  the  case  took  on  another  complexion.  It  was 
an  indefeasible  right  of  the  layman  that  he 
of  the  could  not  be  excommunicated  for  any  cause 

Laity. 

except  '^notorious  evil  living."  But  Marriage 
and  Divorce  is  both  a  civil  and  an  ecclesiastical  cause. 
Can  a  man  or  woman  be  pronounced  by  the  Church  "a 
notorious  evil  liver"  for  an  act  which  the  State  war- 
rants, and  to  which  it  has  been  a  party?  The  failure 
to  realize  this  fundamental  difficulty  probably  explains 
the  failure  of  the  Church  to  reach  a  satisfactory  judg- 
ment in  the  matter.  Here,  as  not  infrequently,  the 
General  Convention  assumed  the  possession  of  power 
to  "bind  and  loose"  without  considering  that  the  indi- 
vidual citizen  in  the  Kingdom  has  rights  which  cannot 
be  safely  ignored.     ^Yhen  the  English  State  made  it 


THE  RECENT  PAST  437 

lawful,  as  it  had  previouslj  been  unlawful,  for  a  man 
to  marry  his  deceased  wife's  sister,  the  English  Church's 
Minister  was  forbidden  to  excommunicate  him  for  doing 
so.  Until  some  way  is  found  to  adjust  the  diverse 
moralities  of  the  Church  and  the  State  no  permanent 
legislation  upon  this  subject  is  likely  to  be  reached  by 
either.  But  the  evil,  Avhich  both  in  different  degrees 
recognize,  is  so  menacing  that  one  may  well  believe 
that  he  who  writes  the  history  of  the  Church  fifty  years 
hence  w^ill  record  its  abatement. 

iSTo  problem  of  the  Church  has  been  more  perplexing 
than  that  of  the  ^^egj-ogs.  At  the  close  of  the  Civil 
The  ^^^^^'  there  were  in  the  country  about  four 

?nd  the  millions  of  them.     Since  then  they  have  mul- 

^^^°'  tipliod  to  about  eleven  millions, — about  one- 

ninth  of  the  population.  They  are  racially  a  "relig- 
ious" people,  but  with  a  religion  of  the  emotions  and 
the  imagination  rather  than  of  conduct.  Before  the 
War  they  were  generally  accounted  members  of  some 
church,  usually  the  one  to  which  their  master  was 
attached.  In  the  jSTorthern  cities  there  were  perhaps 
half  a  dozen  parishes  composed  almost  exclusively  of 
mulattoes.  The  ordinary  Xegro  was  seldom  seen  in 
these  churches,  and  was  scarcely  welcomed, — for  there 
are  many  "color  lines"  beside  the  one  which  divides 
white  from  black.  But  the  great  mass  of  them  were 
adrift  as  sheep  without  a  shepherd. 

The  Church  was  anxious  to  shepherd  them,  but  did 
not  know  how.  The  sane  and  natural  policy  Avould  have 
been  to  deal  with  them  as  a  peculiar  race,  different 
from  the  mass  of  the  population.     By  nature  and  tradi- 


438  THE    PROTESTAXT    EPISCOPAL    CHURCII 

tion  English  Christianity  was  foreign  and  largely  nn- 
intelligible  to  them.  Its  order,  litnrgy,  hymns,  and 
temper  were  alien  to  them.  If  they  were  to  be  reached 
effectively  these  facts  were  to  be  recognized.  Such  a 
policy  was  indeed  urged  by  some  of  the  most  sagacions 
and  statesmanlike  men  in  the  Chnrch.  The  great 
Bishop  Whittingham  of  Maryland  proposed  a  well 
digested  plan.  It  was  substantially  based  upon  the 
same  principle  to  which  Booker  Washington  has  so 
tenaciously  adhered.  Its  virtue  was  that  it  looked  at 
facts  as  they  were.  He  proposed,  in  substance,  that  a 
Bishop  should  be  consecrated  and  set  apart  for  the  race, 
that  he  should  be  confined  to  no  territorial  boundaries, 
that  within  wide  limits  he  should  be  left  a  free  hand 
as  to  ritual,  discipline,  and  methods.  It  was  believed 
that  thus  could  be  formed  a  large  African  Episcopal 
Church,  linked  for  the  time  being  to  the  Church  through 
its  Bishop.  The  j^egroes  were  all  at  sea  ecclesiastically. 
They  needed  of  all  things  those  which  the  Church 
could  furnish,  the  order  and  restraint  of  the  Church's 
spirit.  But  they  needed  these  things  fitted  to  their  own 
idiosyncrasies  of  nature  and  disposition. 

But  doctrinaires  and  sentimentalists  would  have  none 
of  it.  Such  ill  applied  phrases  as  "all  are  equal  in 
Christ,"  "no  color  line  in  the  Church,"  carried  the  day. 
Instead,  the  attempt  was  undertaken  to  make  Episco- 
palian Xegroes.  Wherever  the  attempt  has  been  suc- 
cessful in  any  considerable  way  it  has  brought  its  own 
embarrassments.  In  ISTorthern  dioceses  where  colored 
parishes  were  so  few  as  to  be  negligible  it  passed  un- 
noticed.    The  two  races  there- lived  habitually  so  sep- 


THE   RECENT   PAST  439 

arate  and  untouched  by  each  other  that  no  question  of 
color  arose.  But  in  the  dioceses  of  the  South,  where 
the  K'egroes  are,  the  difficulty  was  insuperable.  In 
many  places  the  colored  population  equalled,  and  in 
some  exceeded,  the  white.  But  between  the  two  peoples 
a  social  chasm  ya^vned  which  could  not  be  bridged  or 
passed.  The  fond  notion  still  obtained  that,  in  State 
and  Church  alike,  citizenship  had  no  essential  relation 
with  social  status,  that  men  could  stand  upon  the  same 
level  as  citizens,  while  in  every  thing  else  each  gave 
his  fealty  to  his  own  class. 

It  soon  became  clear  that  the  theory  would  not  work 
in  the  State,  and  its  embarrassment  soon  appeared  in 
the  Church.  If  the  colored  people  were  gathered  in 
any  large  numbers,  and  organized  into  parishes,  would 
these  parishes  be  received  into  union  with  the  diocesan 
convention?  If  so,  how  long  before  their  votes  would 
preponderate?  If  not,  with  what  face  invite  them  to 
the  Church?  It  did  not  take  long  for  the  colored 
family  to  discover  that  they  were  not  wanted  in  the 
ecclesiastical  family  any  more  than  they  were  in  the 
social  family.  Unlike  Booker  Washington's  appeal, 
that  of  the  Church  did  not  reach  to  their  race  conscious- 
ness and  resjDect.  Temporary  expedients  in  the  way  of 
"Colored  Convocations"  within  the  diocese  were  tried, 
but  with  scant  success.  The  General  Convention  per- 
sistently boggled  at  the  suggestion  of  a  separate  organi- 
zation on  the  basis  of  race.  When  it  finally  became 
clear  that  no  real  progress  was  being  made,  a  final 
makeshift  was  tried  in  the  form  of  Suffragan  Bishops, 


4-iO  THE   PROTESTANT    EPISCOPAL    CHURCH 

with  special  view  to  special  Avork  among  the  IN'egroes. 
This  plan  really  acknowledged  the  principle  of  race 
segregation,  but  proposed  to  confine  its  operation  within 
the  diocese  The  plan  was  disingenuons  and  the  offspring 
of  timidity.  It  failed  entirely  of  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  ostensibly  devised.  iSTo  Suffragan  has  thus 
far  been  appointed  in  the  South,  but  on  the  other 
hand  the  nondescript  official  has  begun  to  multiply  in 
the  iSTorth, — where  the  Xegroes  are  not.  The  net  result 
of  fifty  years'  deliberation  and  work  has  been  a  prac- 
tical failure  to  make  any  considerable  impression  upon 
the  colored  mass.  A  few  colored  congregations  gathered 
from  the  most  forward  of  the  race,  and  with  preponder- 
atingly  white  blood  in  their  veins,  live  unobtrusively 
in  the  Church,  but  they  are  a  negligible  percentage  of 
the  eleven  millions.  The  failure  has  not  been  due  to 
lack  of  good  will  or  earnest  purpose,  but  to  that  ineradi- 
cable habit  of  this  Church  to  be  governed  by  sentiment 
instead  of  reality. 

During  the  same  period  repeated  attempts  have  been 
made  to  have  the  Church's  legal  title  changed  from 
Change  "Protestant    Episcopal"    to    something    else, 

of  Name.  rpj^^  motive  of  the  agitation  was  to  get  rid 
of  the  adjective  "Protestant."  It  was  urged  that  the 
word  was  both  superfluous  and  misleading,  that  the  true 
status  of  the  Church  is  not  that  of  protest  but  of  secure 
assertion,  that  the  day  of  protest  is  long  past,  that  the 
title  is  an  embarrassment  and  offense  in  any  possible 
rapprochement  with  the  Catholic  branches  of  the  historic 
Church,  that  it  tacitly  aligns  this  Church  with  a  system 


THE   EECENT   PAST  441 

of  doctrine  and  a  manner  of  ecclesiastical  life  which 
are  not  really  hers. 

On  the  other  hand  it  is  urged  that  the  name  has 
been  an  honored  possession  for  a  century  and  a  quarter, 
that  the  Church  is  far  closer  akin  to  the  Protestant  than 
to  the  Catholic  side  of  Christianity,  that  to  drop  the 
name  or  change  it  would  be  to  estrange  us  hopelessly 
from  that  portion  of  the  Christian  world  which  is 
nearest  us,  that  the  proposed  change  of  name  really 
imports  a  change  of  the  thing  to  something  else  which 
to  many  is  abhorrent.  The  agitation  has  waxed  and 
waned,  but  upon  the  whole  has  gained  ground.  Its 
mere  discussion  has  kept  the  idea  before  the  Church, 
so  that  the  strangeness  of  the  proposition  has  largely 
worn  away.  From  being  regarded  as  "a  monster  of 
hideous  mien"  it  has  passed  through  the  phases  of  pity 
and  endurance,  and  may  finally  be  embraced. 

For  a  good  while  the  Church  has  been  concerned  with 
two  radical  changes  in  her  organization,  one  adopted 
Provincial  "1^^^  the  Other  strongly  urged,  the  "Provincial 
System.  System,"  and  "Proportionate  Representa- 
tion." From  the  organization  of  the  Church  up  to  1913 
the  governing  and  legislative  body  was  the  General 
Convention,  constituted  by  representations  from  each 
diocese.  Between  this  general  assembly  and  the  diocese 
there  was  no  intermediate  council  or  court.  But  the 
growth  of  the  Church,  the  multiplication  of  her  in- 
terests, the  extension  into  so  many  and  so  sundered 
missionary  fields,  at  last  brought  to  the  General  Con- 
vention such  a  mass  of  agenda  that  it  became  over- 
burdened.     Therefore   in   1913   a  set  of  intermediate 


442  THE   PKOTESTANT    EPISCOPAL    CHURCH 

parliaments  was  created.  To  these  Provincial  Coun- 
cils is  to  be  referred  a  mass  of  causes  in  the  first  in- 
stance, and  a  class  of  work  which  heretofore  has  occu- 
pied the  General  Convention  itself. 

In  the  proportion  in  which  each  diocese  is  represented 
in  the  General  Convention  a  strange  solecism  has  ex- 
isted from  the  beginning.     Regardless  of  the  respective 
size  or  numbers  of  the  constituent  dioceses  each  one  has 
the  same  number  of  representatives  and  the 

Proper-  ^ 

Representa-  same  vote.  When  the  Constitution  was  origi- 
tion.  nally    adopted   every   diocese   was   contermi- 

nous with  a  State.  Indeed  it  regarded  itself  as  an 
independent  State  Church.  As  it  was  in  the  case  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  the  only  terms  upon  which 
each  State  would  enter  into  the  general  government  was 
that  of  absolute  equality  with  every  other  one.  In  form- 
ing the  United  States  this  reluctance  was  overcome  by 
allowing  equal  representation  in  the  Senate  with  a  pro- 
portionate representation  in  the  House. 

But  the  dioceses  in  the  several  States  refused  to  come 
into  union  except  upon  harder  terms.  So  long  as  each 
diocese  remained  conterminous  with  a  State,  and  while 
the  idea  of  state  autonomy  remained  powerful,  the  ab- 
surdity of  the  system  was  little  noticed.  But  after  the 
Civil  War,  when  the  State  Rights  idea  began  to  decline, 
and  when  each  State  began  to  be  divided  into  two  or 
more  dioceses,  the  inequitableness  and  the  practical 
evils  of  the  situation  became  more  and  more  palpable. 
But  it  was  difficult  to  correct.  It  is  easier  to  grant 
powers  than  to  recall  them.  It  was  but  human  nature, 
even  Christian  human  nature,  for  the  smaller  dioceses 


THE   RECENT    PAST  443 

to  oppose  the  surrender  of  constitutional  rights.  Never- 
theless the  common  sense  and  the  innate  justice  of  the 
Church  presses  more  and  more,  making  this  the  most 
vital  matter  concerning  the  present  and  the  future  of 
the  Church. 


444         THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE    NET   RESULT. 

In  his  "American  Commonwealth  "  Mr.  Bryce  makes 
an  interesting  although  cautious  estimate  of  the  relig- 
ious life  of  the  people  of  the  Fnited  States.  His  judg- 
ment is  that  the  diffused  religiousness  is  more  intense 
than  that  of  the  Continental  peoples  of  Europe,  prob- 
ably about  the  same  as  that  of  England,  and  rather  less 
than  that  of  Scotland.  But  he  points  out  that  it  has  a 
quality  of  its  own.  It  is  Christian,  of  course,  but  it 
is  American.  It  has  a  flavor,  a  tinge,  a  character  dif- 
ferent from  the  Christianity  which  exists  elsewhere. 
It  is  not  easy  to  say  just  wherein  this  peculiarity  con- 
sists. Institutions,  doctrines,  rituals,  are  much  the 
same  as  in  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  the  impression 
which  it  makes  upon  the  observer  is  characteristic. 

Is  it  possible  to  discover  and  discriminate  the  Church's 
influence  in  forming  American  Christianity  as  it  now 
exists  ?  Has  she  had  any  real  effect,  and  if  so,  what  ? 
No  task  could  be  more  difficult  or  delicate  than  the 
attempt  to  make  such  an  estimate.  The  required 
information,  the  candor,  and  the  skill  are  all  alike  hard 
to  command.  And  yet  no  history  of  the  Church  can 
be  deemed  complete  with  this  task  left  unattempted, 
for  it  is  in  this  way  rather  than  by  the  exhibition  of 
statistics  that  the  Church's  present  position  is  to  be 


THE   NET   RESULT.  -ti5 

measured.  The  data  are  hard  to  obtain.  Every  con- 
siderable sect  in  the  United  States  has  had  its  history 
written,  both  by  friends  and  enemies.  But  practically 
no  attempt  has  been  made  to  weigh  the  influence  which 
each  has  had  upon  another  or  upon  the  life  of  the  peo- 
ple as  a  whole.  There  are  no  authorities  to  be  con- 
sulted in  the  attempt  to  traverse  this  untrodden  ground. 
This  historic  fact  itself  is  one  sufficiently  interesting  to 
be  recorded. 

The  religious  life  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
has  been  derived  through  many  sources.  It  may  be 
likened  to  a  broad  moving  river  fed  by  affluents  which 
stream  into  it  from  a  hundred  quarters.  Of  course 
when  these  tributaries  merge  into  the  broad  stream 
they  lose  for  the  most  part  their  distinctive  colors. 
But  this  fusion  was  not  efl'ected  at  once.  In  some 
instances  a  tributary  stream  acts  as  does  the  Blue  Nile 
in  the  great  river  of  Egypt.  It  keeps  its  color  and  its 
especial  density  in  the  midst  of  the  flood  with  which  it 
moves.  But  all,  sooner  or  later,  merge  themselves  so 
entirely  in  the  common  current  that  only  something 
like  a  chemical  analysis  will  discover  the  several  contri- 
butions. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  societies  within  which 
the  people  conduct  their  religious  lives  are  almost  with- 
out exception  of  foreign  origin.  Only  two  or  three 
denominations  calling  themselves  Churches  can  be 
named  which  originated  in  the  United  States.  These 
are  the  "Christian,"  the  Mormon,  and  the  Eeformed 
Episcopal.  This  country  has  not  been  prolific  in  sects. 
The  tendency,  though  slow,  has  been,  upon  the  whole, 


44:0  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

towards  unification.  No  "  Confessions  of  Faith"  are 
of  American  manufacture.  Tlie  only  one  which  has 
exercised  any  considerable  influence,  the  Cambridge 
Platform,  has  been  well-nigh  forgotten.  The  same 
might  be  said  generally  of  the  imported  Articles  and 
Confessions,  also,  so  far  as  their  actual  influence  upon 
the  religious  life  of  the  people  is  concerned. 

In  order  to  estimate  the  influence  of  the  Church  a 
brief  historical  survey  will  be  necessary.  It  is  difficult 
to  realize  that  almost  two-thirds  of  the  history  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  lies  anterior  to  the  Revo- 
lutionary War.  The  events  which  have  occurred  since 
that  date  have  been  so  striking  and  have  moved  in  such 
rapid  sequence,  that  they  throw  into  the  background 
the  colonial  period.  Nevertheless,  it  is  within  that 
period  that  one  must  seek  the  causes  which  to-day 
show  their  results  in  many  important  areas  of  life. 

In  regard  of  their  everj'-day  habits  of  religious 
thought  and  action  the  early  colonists  may  be  roughly 
classed  in  three  groups — the  Southern,  the  Eastern,  and 
the  Middle  Colonies,  These  people  were  more  alike 
religiously  than  is  often  assumed,  but  they  had  also  cer- 
tain different  tendencies,  which  made  them  draw  quick- 
ly apart.  To  begin  with,  they  were  all  alike  Church 
of  England  people.  That  foundation  of  unconscious 
habit  and  custom  upon  which  all  conscious  belief  rests 
was  that  which  had  been  slowly  laid  during  the  pre- 
ceding centuries  of  Christian  England.  And  habit  has 
to  do  quite  as  much  as  volition  with  e very-day  religion. 
One  assumption  which  was  fixed  in  the  very  structure 
of  their  thought  was  the  union  of  Church  and  State. 


THE   NET   RESULT.  44:7 

They  were  all  alike  in  this.      Our  assumption  of  the 
normal  separateness  of  Church  and  State  was  not  even 
thinkable  by  them.     But  the  groups  differed  from  each 
other  in  the  distribution  of  emphasis  which  they  laid 
upon  religious  and  civil  institutions.     In  Virginia  and 
Maryland  they  conceived  of  the  Church  as  a  depart- 
ment of  State.     The  civil  side  was  uppermost  in  their 
thought  when  they  came  here,  just  as  it  had  been  upper- 
most while  they  abode  in  Old  England.     The  ideal  of 
a  Virginia  parish  was  to  reproduce  the  life  of  a  Dev- 
onshire parish.     Priest  and  people  came  out  together, 
and  the  squire  was  a  more  considerable  person  than  the 
parson  here,  as  he  had  been  there.     They  thought  to 
organize  a  new  society  whose  predicate  was  State,  and 
of    which   the   term  Christian  was  but  a  descriptive 
epithet.     Organized  society  was   a  personality  which 
had  both  secular  and  spiritual  relations,  but  they  be- 
lieved that  its  life  w-as  best  and  most  safely  conducted 
from  the  secular  side.     The  Church  was  subordinated 
to  the  State. 

The  New  England  colonists  were  Church  of  England 
people  also.  That  little  group  of  Independents  who 
landed  at  Plymouth  had  but  little  influence  in  affairs. 
Their  experiment  w^as  soon  concluded.  Their  ideal 
was  not  to  be  realized  until  more  than  two  centuries 
should  have  elapsed.  The  Puritans  were  members  of 
the  Church  of  England.  Their  early  Clergy  were 
Episcopally  ordained.  Their  enterprise  set  out  with 
.  the  benediction  of  the  bishop.  They  also  conceived  of 
Church  and  State  as  one.  The  modern  idea  of  the 
Church  as  a  voluntary  association,  having  its  life  in 


44:8  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

the  midst  of  a  State  with  which  it  has  no  official 
connection,  was  inconceivaljle  to  them,  and  Avoukl  have 
been  abhorrent  if  it  had  been  suggested.  They  were 
the  highest  of  high  Churchmen.  The  Southern  Colonist 
had  in  mind  to  found  a  State  which  should  contain 
a  Church,  the  Northern  had  in  mind  to  found  a  Church 
which  should  include  a  State. 

The  third  group,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  New 
Jersey,  w^ere  dominated  by  a  different  motive.  They 
included  a  far  smaller  proportion  of  pure  English  stock. 
The  Scotch,  Dutch,  and  Germans  brought  with  them 
a  different  set  of  prepossessions.  The  idea  of  the  sepa- 
rateness  of  Church  and  State  had  emerged  much  more 
clearly  in  their  minds  while  they  dwelt  in  their  old 
homes.  They  had  not  thought  out  very  clearly  any 
theory  concerning  the  matter,  but  they  proceeded  to 
settle  the  great  question  of  the  Keformation  by  actual 
practice.  They  set  up  secular  courts  to  secure  secular 
rights,  and  allowed  the  people  to  group  themselves 
spiritually  as  their  several  affinities  might  lead. 

The  above  was,  in  general,  the  ecclesiastical  situation 
at  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  So  far  as 
doctrinal  beliefs  were  concerned,  the  people  of  the 
Colonies,  whether  English,  Dutch,  Scotch,  or  German, 
were  what  would  now  be  called  Calvinistic,  but  which 
is  really  Augustinian.  With  the  exception  of  the 
Quakers,  whom  the  possession  of  the  "Inner  Light" 
rendered  indifferent  to  all  doctrine,  thy  believed  in  the 
Fall;  the  Incarnation  of  God  in  Christ;  the  expiatory 
quality  of  Christ's  life  and  death;  in  a  sharp  distinc- 
tion between  the  "  saved  "  and  the  ''  lost  " ;  in  a  mate- 


THE   NET   RESULT.  449 

riallv  pictured  heaven  and  hell;  in  the  literal  inspira- 
tion of  the  Bible;  and  took  for  granted  the  causal 
relation  between  religion  and  conduct.  They  were 
generally  agreed  in  their  dislike  of  what  they  called 
"enthusiasm."  They  condemned  and  feared  the  ap- 
peal to  the  emotions  in  religion.  This  was  as  true  of 
the  Puritan  of  Massachusetts  and  the  Presbyterian 
of  Pennsylvania  as  it  was  of  the  High  Churchman  of 
Connecticut  or  the  Latitudinarian  of  Virginia.  The 
tradition  of  the  extravagancies  of  the  Anaba])tists  and 
the  Fifth  Monarchy  men  was  still  vivid.  The  Quaker, 
the  Baptist,  and  the  Mennonite  were  looked  at  askance 
by  the  great  mass  of  the  population. 

These  were,  in  the  main,  the  characteristics  of  the 
primary  stratum  of  American  religious  life.  It  was 
deposited  but  slowly,  and  tlie  various  portions  were  so 
separated  from  each  other  in  the  spaciousness  of  a  new 
country  that  their  influence  ujion  each  other  was  but 
slight. 

Each  denomination  long  retained  the  peculiarities 
it  brought  with  it.  A  few  retain  them  yet.  There 
are  certain  small  bodies,  as,  for  example,  the  Eeformed 
Presbyterian,  which  remain  almost  uninfluenced  by 
the  religious  movement  in  America.  Indeed,  one,  the 
largest  of  all,  the  Eoman  Church,  may  be  left  out  of 
consideration  in  any  attempt  to  estimate  the  reciprocal 
efl'ect  of  the  various  portions  upon  each  other.  While 
it  is  true  that  the  Roman  Church  has  been  profoundly 
affected  by  the  religious  and  political  atmosphere  of 
America,  so  that  Romanism  here  is  easily  distin- 
guished from  Romanism  elsewhere  in  the  Avorld,  still  it 


450  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUKCH. 

moves  apart  from  the  main  current.  "  Romanism  and 
Protestantism  are  not,  as  it  is  so  generally  assumed, 
varieties  of  the  same  religion;  they  are  different  re- 
ligions. ' '  ^ 

The  Romanist  lives  his  religious  life  apart  from  his 
Protestant  neighbors,  and  they  probal)ly  understand  as 
little  both  its  virtues  and  its  faults  as  he  does  theirs. 

But  the  first  religious  problem  which  confronted  the 
people  of  this  country  was  one  in  which  all  alike  were 
concerned.  That  was  to  delimit  Church  and  State. 
For  the  first  time  since  Constantine,  was  offered  both 
the  opportunity  and  the  necessity  for  its  solution.  Only 
in  New  York  and  Rhode  Island  was  this  adjustment 
reached  before  the  War  of  Independence,  and  in  these 
Colonies  not  completely.  It  is  not  complete  yet  in  the 
United  States  as  a  whole.  There  are  still  undetermined 
frontiers.^  The  causes  of  marriage  and  divorce  and 
the  field  of  public  education  are  still  regions  where  the 
adjustment  of  the  religious  and  secular  is  far  from 
complete. 

But  in  this  apportionment  of  the  concerns  of  life  be- 
tween God  and  Caesar,  the  Episcopal  Church  was  before 
all  others.  This  was  a  necessity  of  the  situation.  Dur- 
ing the  Colonial  Period  she  had  been  far  more  closely 
bound  to  the  civil  power  than  had  any  other.  The 
Revolutionary  War  tore  her  loose  by  violence  and  com- 
pletely. The  "  Standing  Order"  of  Congregational- 
ism in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  could  leisurely 

'  R.  H.  Huttoii  :  Essays. 

^  For  example,  in  one  State  Roman  Catholics  are  still  ineligible  for 
office  ;  in  several  others  infidels,  atheists,  and  blasphemers  are  liable  to  be 
disfranchised. 


THE   NET   RESULT.  451 

adjust  itself  to  the  new  political  life  during  sixty  years. 
But  the  Church  in  Maryland  and  Virginia  had  to  do  it 
at  once.  Politically  it  was  an  outcast  in  the  new 
Republic,  This  drove  it  to  organize  at  once  as  a 
national  Church  for  sheer  self-preservation.  It  was  the 
first  to  do  so.^  Ever  since  it  has  held  itself  aloof  from 
politics.  The  lesson  it  learned  during  the  eighteenth 
century  has  never  been  forgotten.  Even  during  the 
passionate  period  of  the  Civil  War  men  could  go  to 
Church  in  confidence  that  they  would  hear  no  echo  of 
party  strife  either  in  prayers  or  sermon.  Sooner  or 
later  all  the  denominations  followed  in  the  movement. 
It  came  to  be  natural  that  a  Church  should  be  a  free, 
voluntary  organization,  living  its  life  according  to  its 
own  rules,  in  the  midst  of  a  State  from  which  it  asked 
nothing  but  to  be  safeguarded  against  encroachment. 

But  when  the  voluntar}-^  system  began  to  be  univer- 
sally accepted  the  free  religious  atoms  began  to  move 
into  groups  according  to  their  natural  affinities.  As  a 
result  of  this  new  grouping,  the  Church  began  to  find 
her  own  place  and  to  show  her  own  qualities.  The 
diffused  Protestantism  of  the  United  States  has  crystal- 
lized about  three  separate  points.  These  are  the  intel- 
lect, the  emotions,  the  conscience.  About  the  first  of 
these  were  ranged  the  whole  Presbyterian  group,  the 
Congregationalists,  the  Lutherans,  and  later  the  Unita- 
rians. The  note  of  this  class  is  that  it  conceives  of 
religion  as  primarily  a  matter  of  intellectual  consent. 

'  The  Presbyterian  General  Assembly  was  constituted  the  same  year, 
1789,  but  it  included  only  a  portion  of  the  great  Presbyterian  family. 
Briggs  :  American  Presbyterianism,  p.  363. 


452  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUROH. 

They  ask,  "  What  do  you  believe  ?  "  They  stickle  for 
precision  of  theological  statement.  They  make  or- 
thodoxy the  condition  of  admission  for  the  inquirer 
and  for  intercommunion  among  denominations.  They 
possess  "Confessions  of  Faith"  and  "Platforms." 
They  value  learning  and  honor  doctors  of  Theology. 
They  are  coherent,  logical,  learned.  In  a  word,  their 
religion  finds  its  home  in  the  understanding  rather 
than  in  the  affections  or  the  conscience.  This  is  not 
to  say  that  in  the  lives  of  their  individuals  they  are 
hard  in  heart  or  loose  in  morals.  But  it  is  to  say  that 
when  they  seek  for  a  ground  upon  which  to  effect  out- 
ward and  visible  organization  the}^  look  for  that  ground 
in  doctrine  rather  than  in  either  feeling  or  living. 

The  second  group  dra^vs  together  upon  the  ground  of 
the  emotions.  The  Baptists,  Methodists,  "Christians," 
the  Salvation  Army,  the  Revivalists  all  hold  the  same 
conception  of  religion.  They  ask  not,  "  What  do  you 
believe?"  but  "  How  do  you  feel  f^'  The  condition 
of  membership  for  the  individual  is  that  he  shall  have 
passed  through  a  definite  sequence  of  emotions.  The 
individuals  are  fused  together  in  a  denomination  by  the 
emotional  fire  through  which  they  have  all  been  passed. 
They  lay  comparatively  little  enq)hasis  upon  learning 
or  logic  because  they  have  no  need  to  do  so.  Their 
appeal  is  not,  in  the  last  resort,  to  the  understanding, 
but  to  the  heart.  They  have  grown  apace.  Theii- 
strength  is  to  win  the  great  multitude  which  can  be  far 
more  easily  moved  by  the  contagion  of  a  divine  impulse 
than  it  can  be  led  to  have  a  right  understanding  or  to 
righteousness  of  life.     Nor,  once  again,  may  it  be  said 


THE   NET   RESULT.  453 

that  this  group  is  nnimndful  of  either  orthodoxy  or 
morality  in  the  individual.  It  is  enough  to  say  that 
as  visible  bodies  they  organize  themselves  about  the 
emotional  element  in  human  nature. 

The   third  group   is   composed  of  the  Church,  the 
Moravians,  and,  as  being  in  spiritual  sympathy  with 
them,  the  Dutch  Reformed,  the  Reformed  Presbyterian, 
and  a  few  other  small  and  inconspicuous  bodies.      All 
these,  while  living  a])art,  and  in  many  cases  little  known 
by  one  another,  have  one  fundamental  note  in  common. 
They  think  of  Christ's  Church  not  as  an  organization  for 
the  maintenance  of  doctrine,  nor  for  the  contagiousness 
of  religious  feeling,  but  as  an  Institute  of  Righteous- 
ness.     They  are  substantially  at  one  in  their  concep- 
tion of  Avhat  Christianity  essentially  is.     The  question 
they  address  to  the  postulant  is  not  "What  do  you 
believe?  "  nor  "  What  do  you  feel?  '^  but  ''  How  will 
you  live?''     The  characteristic  feature  of  the  Church 
is  her  attitude  toward  the  world.     To  this  attitude  the 
Church  in  England  and  the  Cnmrch  in  America  have 
adhered  tenaciously,  even  at  times  when  powerful  m- 
fluences  both  from  without  and  within  have  tempted 
her  to  change  it.     In  England  her  position  has  been 
reviled  as  Erastianism,  and  in  America  as  worldliness, 
but  she  has  held  fast  to  it.     She  has  remembered  her 
Lord's  caution,  that  His  disciples  must  not  expect  to  be 
taken  ont  of  the  world,  but  only  to  be  kept  from  evil. 
She  regards  the  Church  as  an  institution  which  has 
primary  regard  to  the  life  that  now  is.     She  thinks  of 
it  much  as  she  does  of  the  State.     It  is  intended  for  all 
men,  good  and  bad  alike.     Its  purpose  is  to  produce 


4:54:  THE   PROTESTATs^T    EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

and  conserve  goodness.  Its  dominant  tone  is  ethical 
rather  than  either  intellectual  or  emotional.  It  has 
often  been  taunted  with  ''lack  of  vital  piety,"  with 
worldliness,  with  cold  morality.  Dogmatists  and  emo- 
tionalists from  within  have  attempted  to  transform  her 
genius,  hut  have  not  succeeded.  Her  abiding  instinct 
has  kept  her  steadfast  to  her  conception  of  the  Church 
as  an  "Institute  of  Righteousness."  This  has  de- 
termined her  position  towards  Doctrine,  Discipline, 
and  Worship,  and  fixed  her  conditions  of  membership 
and  intercommunion.  Her  only  test  of  the  truth  and 
value  of  doctrine  is  its  immediate  effect  upon  living. 
Sermons  are  practical  and  ethical  rather  than  doc- 
trinal or  inspiring.  Her  Liturgy  is  valued  and  insisted 
upon  not  chiefly  for  its  beauty  or  its  antiquity,  or  its 
fitness  to  express  exalted  emotions,  but  because  of  its 
disciplinary  power  to  uphold  the  soul  in  right  living. 
For  admission  to  membership  she  exacts  onl}^  the  mini- 
mum of  belief.  The  general  and  unrelated  articles 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed  are  enough  for  a  working  Con- 
sensus. This,  as  expanded  in  the  Nicene  Creed,  she 
pronounces  to  be  "a  sufficient  statement  of  Christian 
Doctrine."  That  word  "sufficient"  in  its  connection 
has  Avide  implications.  It  at  once  relegates  all  other 
statements  of  doctrine  to  the  region  of  individual 
opinion.  Thus  far  no  other  Church  has  ventured  so 
bold  a  statement.  That  this  is  the  position  of  the 
Church  is  seen  by  a  crucial  test  of  practice.  The  only 
condition  on  which  she  will  turn  the  Key  of  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  to  bind  or  loose  is  an  ethical  condition. 
She  bids  to  the  Holy  Sacrament  all  those  who  "do 


THE   NET   RESULT.  4."»r> 

earnestly  repent  them  of  their  sins  and  are  in  love  and 
charity  with  their  neighbors,  and  intend  to  lead  a  new 
life,  walking  in  the  commandments  of  God  " ;  she  repels 
only  those  who  are  known  to  be  "  open  and  notorious 
evil  livers,  or  to  have  done  any  wrong  to  their  neigh- 
bors by  word  or  deed."  This  conception  of  the 
Church's  place  and  function  in  the  world  is  the  key 
to  a  right  understanding  of  her  whole  history.  She 
attaches  an  importance  to  sacraments,  ordinances,  rit- 
ual, and  organization  which  those  outside  not  seldom 
characterize  as  formalism,  superstition,  bigotry.  The 
charge  would  lie  if  these  things  were  valued  for  them- 
selves or  if  they  were  arbitrarily  created.  But,  in  fact, 
they  have  their  rationale  in  the  Church's  deep  sense  of 
the  difficulty  of  right  living.  Eighteousness  is  at  once 
a  thing  so  arduous  and  of  such  transcendent  value  that 
any  machinery  which  has  proven  its  value  to  induce 
or  maintain  it  becomes  sacred  and  obligatory.  And 
because  the  antithesis  of  holiness  is  selfishness,  there- 
fore the  Church  sets  her  seal  of  condemnation  upon 
individualism  in  the  sphere  of  religion.  Like  Israel, 
she  accounts  that  regime  in  which  "  every  man  does 
that  which  is  right  in  his  own  eyes  "  as  the  worst  pos- 
sible. Because  membership  in  the  spiritual  society  is 
of  divine  obligation,  she  feels  bound  to  leave  the  condi- 
tions  of  membership  so  simjile  and  easy  that  every  man 
may  be  able  to  fulfil  the  obligation. 

At  this  point  it  becomes  of  interest  to  ask,  To  what 
extent,  and  by  what  means,  has  she  been  able  to 
impress  her  thought  concerning  the  Church  upon  the 
people  of  this  land  ? 


456  THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

That  the  whole  trend  of  the  ])resent  time  is  toward 
her  view  is  evident  to  any  competent  observer.  It  does 
not  follow  that  the  movement  is  toward  her.  Dog- 
matic religion  is  already  moribund.  Emotional  relig- 
ion, while  pojndarl}'-  strong,  has  come  to  be  distrusted 
by  the  judicious,  and  shows  symptoms  of  suspecting 
itself.  The  age  is  ethical.  Character  is  coming  to 
take  the  place  of  both  experience  and  creed,  both  as 
the  condition  of  meml)ership  in  Church  and  as  the  real 
exponent  of  Christianity.  The  instinct  of  organization 
is  also  astir.  The  Church  as  a  machinery  for  producing 
righteousness  in  a  neigliborhood  has  come  to  be  the 
accepted  thought.  Fifty  years  ago  this  idea  was  hardly 
anywhere  to  be  found.  The  movement  generally  to- 
ward a  better  church  arc-hitecture,  and  a  more  formal 
and  reverent  liturgy,  is  an  approach  toward  the  Church's 
position.  How  much  of  this  is  due  to  the  Church's 
direct  influence  is  not  easy  to  determine.  Much  of  it 
simply  manifests  the  operation  of  the  spirit  of  truth, 
of  which  the  Church  holds  no  monoj^oly.  But  her 
organized  presence  in  the  land  for  a  century  has  not 
been  without  direct  result.  While  she  has  not  been 
prolific  of  great  theologians,  and  while  the  tone  of  her 
advocates  and  of  her  peculiar  a})]3eals  may  possibly  have 
repelled  more  than  they  have  attracted,  nevertheless 
she  has  been  for  a  century  before  the  people  a  steadfast 
illustration  of  her  idea  of  what  the  C-hurch  of  Christ 
essentially  is.  Men  have  learned  of  her  even  while 
they  disliked  her;  they  have  heard  while  they  struck. 

Her  influence,  moreover,  has  been  immeasurably  en- 
hanced by  her  relationship  to  the  Church  of  England. 


THE    NET    RESULT.  457 

This  has  operated  both  directly  and  indii-ectly.  The 
most  powerful  ecclesiastical  organization  of  the  world's 
dominant  race  has  insensibly  shared  her  prestige  with 
the  Church  in  the  United  States.  The  sense  of  rela- 
tionship with  the  Mother  C'hurcli  has  made  her  bold 
when  she  would  otherwise  have  been  deprecatory,  and 
confident  when  she  Avould  have  been  timid.  It  has  had 
its  drawbacks,  but  they  have  been  far  more  than  coun- 
terbalanced by  its  advantages.  If  it  has  caused  a  curate 
here  and  there  to  affect  a  mediaeval  English  accent  or 
a  feeble-minded  l^ishop  to  break  out  into  cockade  and 
knee  breeches,  it  has,  on  the  other  hand,  tended  to 
give  a  Church  which  is  the  sixth  in  rank,  judged  by  its 
numbers,  a  place  among  the  foremost  in  point  of  infiu- 
ence.  The  English  connection  has  operated  even  more 
powerfully  indirectly.  The  higher  literature  read 
in  America  is  ])redominantly  of  English  origin,  aud 
its  unconscious  background  is  the  English  Church. 
Shakespeare  takes  the  Church  for  granted,  Scott 
leaves  his  every  reader  in  friendlj'^  spirit  toward  her. 
Tenn3^son  and  Browning  are  tinged  b}"  her  local  color. 
English  fiction,  with  whatever  motive  it  l)e  written, 
incidentally  makes  its  readers  familiar  with  her  man- 
ners, thoughts,  service,  and  spirit.  The  theology  which 
is  read  by  the  clergy  of  everj'^  denomination  in  America 
is  English,  as  is  also  their  Biblical  history  and  criticism. 
' '  The  Life  of  Christ ' '  by  Farrar  and  by  Edersheim  is  in 
every  hand.  Although  none  of  these  are  written  in 
the  spirit  of  an  advocate  or  with  the  thought  of  prop- 
agandism,  still  the  fundamental  conception  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  for  which  Episcopacy  stands  under- 


45S  THE   PKOTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHUECH. 

lies  tbeiii  all  and  makes  itself  felt  through  all.  The 
writings  of  the  late  Bishop  Phillips  Brooks  have  oper- 
ated powerfully  in  the  same  direction.  They  have 
passed  into  the  hands  of  tens  of  thousands  outside  the 
Church,  and  have  opened  to  them  the  same  thought  of 
what  the  religion  of  Christ  essentially  is  which  uncon- 
sciously controlled  him  and  wliicli  he  imbibed  from  the 
Church  in  which  he  was  Ijorn.  This  diffused  and  inar- 
ticulate predisposition  toward  the  Church  has  been 
taken  advantage  of  and  been  forcefully  presented  by  a 
host  of  more  churchly  men  who  have  ])een  instant  in 
season  and  out  of  season  to  advance  her  interests  and 
extend  her  visible  frontier.  The  net  result  has  come 
that  the  Church  has  steadily  grown  by  natural  increase; 
has  received  many  who  have  been  drawn  to  her  by 
various  motives;  has  lost  few;  has  remained  hospita- 
ble at  heart  if  not  always  in  manner;  and  stands  to- 
day, in  the  general  respect  and  good  will  of  the  people, 
for  freedom  in  truth,  order  in  worship,  and  righteous 
ness  in  life. 


INDEX. 


Abolitionists,  the  Church  and,  363. 

Acts  of  Uniformity  and  Supremacy, 

8,  26;    effects  of,  11,  26,  32;    in 

Maryland,  106 ;  in  Scotland,  155. 

Adams,  John,  on  the  Establisliment, 

185  ;  on  the  Episcopate,  251. 
Advancement  Society,  293. 
Alabama,  328  ;  secession  of,  369,  371, 

375,  377. 
America,  condition  of,  in  1600,  5  ct 
seq.;  in  1700,  86  el  aeq.,  95,  98;  in 
1800,  277  ;  modern,  292. 
American   Church,   130;    effects  of 
revivalism    upon,    144 ;    need   of 
an     Episcopate,    173-189;    three 
motives  of    reconstruction,  217 ; 
efforts   toward   organization,  220 
ct  seq.,  238;  structural  develop- 
ment, 264. 
Americanism,  121,  335. 
Amusements,  159. 
Anabaptists,  39,  72. 
Andros,  Gov.,  44  ;  in  New  Yorlv,  63  ; 
opposition  to  William  and  Mary 
College,  115. 
Anglo-Catholics,  337,  339. 
Anne,  Queen,  31,  125,  148. 
Antrim  evictions,  156. 
Architecture,  199,  329. 
Arkansas,  359,  369,  371,  376. 
Articles,  the  Thirty-nine,  274,  331. 
Asbury,  Mr.,  290,  313. 
Assembly,  Colonial,  acts  of,  21,  23, 
84;    established  the    Church    in 
New  Yorli,   64 ;    hostile    legisla- 
tion of,  110,  122 ;  proposition  to, 
117. 


Atkinson,  Bishop,  370,  377. 
"Awakening,    the    Great,"    136    et 

scq.,    170;    and    the    Evangelical 

movement,  318. 

Bacon,  Ephraim,  321. 
Baltimore,  Lord,  48,  49,  51. 
Baptists,  relations  with  the  Indians, 
20 ;  among  the  Puritans,  35,  41 ; 
in  New  York,  63  ;  doctrine  of  the 
"Inner  Light,"  72;   numbers  in 
Maryland  in  1703,  105  ;  in  North 
Carolina,  124  ;  on   the   Memorial 
of    1853,    354 ;    attitude    toward 
slave  question,  360. 
Bass,  Dr.,  259. 
Bedell,  Dr.,  318.  • 
Benade,  Bishop,  341. 
Berkeley,  Dean,  133. 
Binney,  Horace,  378. 
Bishop,   see  Episcopate ;  Methodist, 

171. 
Bishop  of  London,  23,  47,  66,  92,  96, 
117,  194  :  Compton,  97,  175,  177  ; 
powers  of,  109,  115,  121,  175,  192  ; 
Gibson,    110;    Lowth,    170,   229; 
Tenison,  177,  179. 
Blair,  Commissary,  89;  in  Virginia, 
112 ;    efforts    for    William    and 
Mary  College,  113 ;  see  Commis- 
saries. 
Blaxton,  William,  39. 
Biihler,    Peter,    152 ;    influence    on 

Wesley,  164. 
Book  Annexed,  407. 
Boston,    parish    organized,   43 ;    see 
Massachusetts. 

59 


460 


INDEX. 


BoiK-her,  Dr.,  111. 

Bowman,  Dr.,  353. 

Boyd,  318. 

Bray,  Commissary,  89,  90,  96,  111; 
visit  to  America,  97  ;  his  memo- 
rial, 98 ;  in  Maryland,  105 ;  sec 
Commissaries. 

Breck,  323. 

Bristed,  318. 

Bristol  College,  327. 

Brown  Brothers,  the,  38. 

Bull,  318. 

Burgess,  Bishop,  350,  353. 

Burlington,  N.  J.,  179,  191;  conven- 
tion in  1705,  178. 

Butler,  Gen.,  as  a  canonist,  372. 

California,  357,  358. 

Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore,  48,  49,  51. 

Calvinism,  in  Scotland,  153  ;  and  tlie 
Evangelicals,  316  ;  in  the  Church, 
330. 

Carolinas,  the,  82 ;  the  Church  there, 
84,  124,  125,  293;  conditions  in 
1820,  296 ;  Bishop  Ravenscroft, 
320;  secession,  329. 

Catholic,  332,  338;  renaissance,  324; 
nature  of  the  Church,  342,  350. 

Centralization,  324  e^ser^.,  329, 338, 366. 

Chandler,  Dr.,  184,  186,  227. 

Charles  I.,  31;  loyalty  to,  in  Vir- 
ginia, 112  ;  in  Scotland,  333. 

Charleston,  83,  84. 

Charter  withdrawn  from  Massachu- 
setts, 42 ;  from  Maryland,  55. 

Chase,  Bishop,  293,  301,  305,  318. 

Cheney,  Rev.  Charles  E.,  397. 

Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  81  ; 
Savannah,  162. 

Church,  the,  effect  of  Act  of  Uni- 
formity upon,  11,  13,  26,  32;  in 
Raleigh's  colony,  14,  112;  in 
Gorges'  colony,  15,  94 ;  first  in 
America,  17 ;  relations  with  In- 
dians, 20  ;  lack  of  sympathy  from 
colonists,  20 ;  legislation  in  re- 
gard to,  21,  94,  106,  110 ;  relaxa- 


tion of  laws  and  manners,  24, 
136;  condition  in  1700,  25,  57, 
86,  95,  98;  relation  to  State,  see 
Church  and  State  ;  temper  of,  32, 
172;  in  New  England,  35  et  seq., 
94,  127,  185  ;  in  Maryland,  54,  58, 
105  ;  in  New  York,  63,  93,  284 ; 
attitude  of  Quakers  toward,  74, 
78;  in  Pennsylvania,  80,  102;  in 
the  Carolinas,  83,  124 ;  conflict 
with  vestries,  92,  93;  S.  P.  G., 
96,  98,  103 ;  buildings,  102  ;  work 
of  Keith  and  Talbot,  101,  103; 
the  Commissaries,  105,  113  ;  at- 
tempt to  reform  manners,  107, 
117 ;  apathy  to  educational  in- 
terests, 113,  114 ;  devoted  men 
in,  130,  343  ;  in  Connecticut,  132, 
389;  attitude  toward  revivalism, 
140,  143,  145  ;  theory  of  religion, 
138,  144  ;  secret  of  growth,  146, 
173;  influence  of  the  Scotch,  157, 
159 ;  mistaken  policy,  13,  158, 
170 ;  relation  to  Methodism,  160 
et  seq.,  169,  173,  390  ;  theories  of, 
see  Theories ;  condition  before 
the  Revolution,  190 ;  growth  of, 
191,  193,  343,  354 ;  services,  200 ; 
Tories  in,  304;  attitude  toward 
the  Revolution,  305  et  seq.;  after 
the  Revolution,  317,  319;  three 
motives  in  reorganization  of,  317; 
property,  319,  331,  233 ;  organiz- 
ing and  naming,  330,  333 ;  the 
federal  idea  in,  see  Federal ; 
fundamental  principles  (1784), 
339;  Constitution  of,  240  et  seq.; 
structural  development  of,  364, 
310;  State  autonomy,  273,  297, 
300,  309;  French  influence,  280; 
condition  in  the  South,  286 ;  in 
1820,  295,  297,  311;  among  the 
pioneers,  298 ;  national  quality 
of,  see  National ;  propagandism, 
309,  310,  336;  "High"  and 
"Low,"  315,  316,  320;  move- 
ment West,  322,  357  ;  two  ideals 


INDEX. 


461 


of,  323  ;  centralization,  324,  350  ; 
the  Church  idea,  326,  328,  329, 
343,  381  ;  as  a  sect,  342,  343,  348 ; 
Unity,  421,  see  Unity;  attitude 
toward  slavery,  361  ;  in  the  Con- 
federacy, 369  ;  reunited,  374,  379  ; 
new  problems,  379,  380;  influ- 
ence, 444 ;  and  doctrine,  454. 

Church  and  State ;  churchman's 
theory  of,  27  ;  Puritan  theory  of, 
26,  27,  31 ;  Romanist  theory  of, 
26,  27;  Pilgrims'  theory  of,  28; 
English  theory  of,  30,  93  ;  alli- 
ance between,  31,  42,  93,  110, 
126,  160,  180,  209;  conflict  be- 
tween, 109,  117,  121,  123,  185,  189; 
at  tlie  Revolution,  205  et  seq.; 
after  the  Revolution,  215  ;  at  the 
Civil  War,  365,  366,  368. 

Civil  War,  effects  of,  379,  380. 

Claggett,  Dr.,  281,  286. 

Clayton,  Rev.  Thomas,  81. 

Clergy,  character  of,  18,  21,  56,  57, 
111,  113,  115,  120,  342 ;  dress  of, 

87,  199,  285,  328  ;  social  status  of, 

88,  91 ;  manners  of,  89,  90,  107 ; 
lack  of  equipment,  96,  113;  con- 
flict with  the  people,  109,  121  ; 
discipline  of,  115,  117,  119;  sup- 
port of,  xee  Support  ;  numbers  of, 
195 ;  not  called  priests,  201  ;  posi- 
tion at  the  Revolution,  205  ;  suf- 
ferings of,  209  ;  in  1800,  311. 

Clerk,  the,  87,  200. 

Cobbs,  Bishop,  370. 

Coke,  Dr.,  290. 

Colonial,  legislation,  see  Assembly 
and  Legislation  ;  Church  the- 
ology, 432. 

Colonies,  Raleigh's,  14 ;  Gorges', 
15,  36,  94;  Virginia,  16,  112; 
Massachusetts,  29  ;  Maryland,  49; 
New  York,  59;  Swedes  on  the 
Delaware,  69 ;  Friends  in  New 
Jersey,  75;  Penn's,  79;  South 
Carolina,  83 ;  Georgia,  124,  162  ; 
legal  status  of,  184. 


Commissaiies,  in  Maryland,  105  ;  in 
Virginia,  112  ;  sec  Bray  and  Blair ; 
in  Northern  colonies,  126. 
Commonwealth  and  the  Church,  24, 

176;  in  Virginia,  112. 
Confederate  Church,  369  et  seq. 
Confirmation,  200,  282. 
Congregationalists,    on   the    Memo- 
rial (1853),  354. 
Connecticut,  the  Church  in,  36,  132, 
191 ;  first  convention,  225  ;  eccle- 
siasticism,  238,  240,  2.54  ;  in  1812, 
289. 
Constitution,   of   Church,  242,  2.58; 
discussion  of,  261  ;  change  in  the 
spirit  of,  309,  310,  324. 
Convention  in  1783,  221  ;    Constitu- 
tional (1785),  240  ;  in   1786,  252  ; 
in  1789,  2.59  ;  in  1792,  299  ;  powers 
of,  265,  268,  272,  309,  367  ;  in  1812, 
288  ;  in  1844,  .339  ;  in  1853,  358 ;  in 
1862,  367  ;  Confederate,  .369,  370  ; 
1865,  377;  see  General  Convention. 
Conversion,  J.  Edwards's  theory  of, 
138,  313 ;  Wesley's,  165,  313 ;  the 
principle,  169,  172,  313. 
Convocation,  107,  265. 
Corporation  for  the  relief  of  widows 
and  children  of  clergy,  201,  238. 
Coxe,  Dr.,  326,  3.53. 
Craik,  Dr.,  3.53. 

Creed,  the  Athanasian,  246,  249,  263; 
Nicene,  246,  253,  256;  Apostles', 
247.  2.53. 
Croswell,  Dr.,  326. 
Cummins,  Bishop,  381,  400. 
Cutler,  President  of  Yale,  127. 

Dare,  Virginia,  14. 

Dashiell,  Daniel,  286. 

Davis,  Bishop,  370. 

Declaration,   concerning    baptismal 

regeneration,     397 ;     concerning 

ritual,  388. 
Deism,  166,  195,  248. 
De  Koven,  Rev.  Dr.  James,  392. 
De  Lancey,  343. 


4(r2 


INDEX. 


Delawai-e,  69  ;  in  1820,  296. 

Diacoiiate,  the,  revival  of,  349,  351, 
352,  356. 

Diocesan  autonomy,  274,  351 ;  sub- 
division, 324. 

Discipline,  109;  decline  of,  117;  dif- 
ficulties of,  176  ;  Bishop's  powers 
of,  266,  267 ;  of  laity,  270 ;  trial  of 
Bishops,  325. 

Dissenters,  106,  125,  133 ;  inclination 
toward  the  Church,  102,  178. 

Doane,  Bishop,  326,  350,  351. 

Doddridge,  Rev.  Joseph,  298,  299. 

Dogma,  153;  changes  in  Prayer-Bool^, 
248 ;  anti-dogmatic  spirit,  248, 
332 ;  new  methods  and,  380, 

Duehe,  Dr.,  286. 

Dutch,  the,  59  el  seq.;  ecclesiastical 
position,  61 ;  dealings  with  Puri- 
tans, 61 ;  toleration,  62 ;  atti- 
tude toward  the  Church,  63,  102, 
193. 

Eastern  Church,  411. 

Ecclesiasticism  in  New  England, 
238,  254,  255;  and  the  federal 
idea,  240 ;  increasing,  325 ;  and 
the  Oxford  movement,  340. 

Education,  96,  97,  198,294;  opposi- 
tion to,  in  Virginia,  114;  Dean 
Berkeley  and,  133 ;  academies  and 
seminaries,  293;  Bishop  Otey  in 
Mississippi,  309  ;  Bishop  Ciiase  in 
Ohio,  30.5. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  136;  theory  of 
conversion,  138  ;  influence  of,  on 
American  Church,  138,  329  ;  rela- 
tion to  Wesley,  170. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  48. 

Elliott,  Bishop,  365,  366,  369,  374. 

Emigration  to  America,  occasions  of, 
8,  23;  conditions  for,  18;  from 
Germany,  147  ;  Scotch-Irish,  156  : 
to  West  and  South,  301,  357. 

Eudicott,  John,  37. 

England,  condition  of,  in  1600,  9 ; 
at  the  Reformation,  153;  in  1750, 


165;  feeling  toward  American 
Church,  229  ;  in  1825,  3.30. 

English,  theory  of  the  Church,  30; 
ignorance  of  American  affairs, 
180;  Church  ceased  to  exist  in 
America,  209,  217. 

Episcopacy,  128,  336 ;  and  Presby- 
terianism,  154;  and  Methodism, 
170. 

Episcopate,  the,  173,  250,  348  ;  plans 
for  American,  65,  110,  176,  178, 
179 ;  need  of,  108,  116,  176,  194  ; 
reasons  of  failure,  ISO;  current 
conception  of,  181 ;  opposition 
to,  182,  229  ;  impossible  till  after 
the  Revolution,  187;  "Indepen- 
dent," 187;  Dr.  Seabury  and  the 
Connecticut  plan,  227 ;  resort  to 
Scotland,  231;  in  the  Middle 
States,  250  ;  the  two  lines  of,  254; 
English  succession,  260,  281. 

Establishment,  the,  in  Massachusetts 
and  New  York  by  English  law, 
42,93,94,  185;  in  Maryland,  .55; 
unpopular,  57,  186,  217 ;  by  the 
Assembly,  64,  106 ;  in  South  Caro- 
lina, 84,  125. 

"  Evangelical  Episcopal  Church," 
287. 

Evangelicals,  the,  14.5,  311 ;  com- 
pared with  Methodists,  312  ;  dif- 
ferentiate of,  313 ;  theory  of 
Church,  315;  function  of,  312, 
316  ;  cause  of  decline  of,  316;  in 
18.53,  317  ;  leaders  of,  318;  Knowl- 
edge Society,  320,  338. 

Evans,  Evan,  95. 

Evans,  II.  D.,  338. 

Evolution,  doctrine  of,  380. 

Fackler,  St.  M.,  358. 

Federal  Idea,  the,  236,  264,  273,  297, 
300,  .306,  356,  366  ;  and  the  eccle- 
siastical idea,  240,  281 ;  revolu- 
tionary character  of,  265 ;  new 
departure,  309,  310,  324. 

Fletcher,  Gov.,  64. 


INDEX. 


4fi.'3 


Flushing  Institute,  327. 

Fourth  of  July  Office,  247,  263. 

Fox,  George,  71,  75. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,   131,    189,  205; 

influence  of,  196. 
Freeman,  Bishop,  3.53. 
Freeman,  of  King's  Chapel,  248. 
French  influence,  280,  288. 

General  Convention,  powers  of, 
270,  271,  272,  309,  367  ;  in  1844, 
339;  memorial  to  (1853),  344  et 
seq.;  spirit  of,  356;  and  the  Con- 
federates, 375. 

Georgia,  134  ;  Wesley  in,  162  ;  seces- 
sion, 369. 

Germans,  147  ;  religious  and  social 
condition,  149  ;  relations  with  tlie 
Church,  151. 

Gibson,  Bishop,  of  London.  110. 

Gorges'  Colony,  15,  36,  94. 

"  Great  Awakening,"  the,  136,  159, 
329. 

Greek  Church  in  Alaska,  358. 

Green,  Bishop,  369. 

Gregg,  Bishop,  370. 

Griffith,  Dr.,  253,  258,  281. 

Griswold,  Bisho]),  293,  318,  326. 

Hawks,  326. 

Hayti,  381. 

Henry,  Patrick,  120, 123,  287. 

Hervey,  313. 

Higginson,  Rev.  Francis,  29. 

High  Churchmen,  316,  319,  321. 

Hobart,  Bishop,  284,  286,  293,  294, 
318  ;  churchmanship  of,  319,  328, 
335. 

"  Holy  Club,"  the,  161,  164,  312. 

Hook,  Dean,  334,  336. 

Hopkins,  Bishop,  318,  326,  368,  374, 
375,  387. 

House  of  Bishops,  see  Episcopate. 

Huguenots,  in  New  York,  62,  63 ;  in 
Maryland,  105 ;  in  South  Caro- 
lina, 125. 

Hunt,  Rev.  Robert,  16,  18,  113. 


Huntington,  Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  R.,  406. 
Hymns,  200,  272. 

Immigration,  of  Germans,  147; 
checked,  151;  of  Scotch-Irish, 156. 

Independents,  in  England,  26 ;  ready 
to  conform,  178. 

"  Independent  Episcopal  Church," 
187,  224. 

Indians,  the,  character  of,  6 ;  at- 
tempts to  convert,  7,  19,  113,  192, 
293;  first  convert,  14;  relations 
with  churchmen,  20  ;  with  Penn, 
77  ;  with  the  Welsh,  82. 

Individualism,  329. 

Infidelity,  280,  288,  334. 

Ingham,  313. 

Inglis,  Bishoi),  208,  227. 

"Inner  Light,"  doctrine  of,  72,  76, 
79. 

Italian  Church  reform,  412. 

Ives,  Bishop,  340. 

James  L,  30,  48,  154. 
Jarratt,  Devereux,  288. 
Jarvis,  Dr.,  256. 
Jefferson,  280,  281. 
Jesuits,  missionaries,  5,  6  ;  in  Mary- 
land, 50,  52. 
Jews,  the,  in  New  York,  62. 
Jones,  Morgan,  82. 
Jubilee  College,  305. 

Keble,  326,  331. 

Keith,  George,  Quaker,  79  ;  mission- 
ary of  S.  P.  G.,  101,  103,  177. 

Kemp,  Bishop,  286. 

Kemper,  Bishop,  343,  351. 

Kentucky,  298,  301,  306;  Church  or- 
ganized, 307. 

Kenyon  College,  305. 

Kerfoot,  Dr.,  378,  379. 

King's  Chapel,  46  ;  Unitarianism  of, 
248. 

Kip,  Bishop,  338,  358. 

Lake,  Arthur,  Rt,  Kev.,  29. 


464 


INDEX. 


Laws,  see  Legislation. 

Lay,  Bishop,  377. 

Laymen    in    Ciuirch  councils,    242, 

•243,  255,  258,  261,  265,  266. 
Leaming,  Jer.,  227.  , 

Lee,  120,  287.  ^ 

Legal  status  of  tlie   colonies,  184 ;  [ 
of  tlie  Churcli,  123,  18.5.  | 

Legislation,  cimcerning  religion,  in 
Virginia,  21  ;  Puritan,  22,  34 ; 
spirit  of,  22 ;  English  laws  and 
colonial,  94  ;  in  Maryland,  106  ; 
hostile  to  the  Cluirch,  110,  122.  j 
Liberalism,  332. 

Lincoln,  President,  363,  369,  373. 
Liquor,    production   of,   279 :    ques- 
tion, 326,  363. 
Liturgy,  control  of,  271 ;  compulsory 
use  of,  348,  351,  352,  354  ;  revision, 
,     244,  261,  357,  381  ;   Confederate, 

371 ;  science  of,  406. 
Lock  wood,  Henry,  321. 
Louisiana  (New    Orleans),  293,  302; 

secession,  369. 
Low  Churchmen,  284,  315,  320,  322. 
Lutherans,  in  New  York,  62 ;  Swed- 
ish, 69,  3.52 ;  attitude  toward  the 
Church,  102,  152,  178,  194;  in 
Maryland,  105 ;  in  Pennsylvania, 
150. 

Madison,  Bishop,  281,  290. 

Madison,  President,  205. 

Manteo,  14. 

Marriages,  performed  only  by  clergy, 
92,  107. 

Marshall,  Samuel,  84. 

Martyn,  Henry,  321. 

Maryland,  colonized,  49  ;  Protestant 
revolution,  53;  Yeo's  account  of, 
54  :  charter  revoked,  55  ;  in  1700, 
57,  105  ;  the  Establishment,  106  ; 
reorganizing  the  Church,  220, 221  ; 
in  1820,  296. 

Massachusetts,  36,  41,  42,  94,  185. 

Mcllvaine,  Bishop.  318,  338,  .368. 

Meade,  Bishop,  288,  293,  326,   328; 


Evangelical,  318;  on  the  Memorial 
of  1853,  352;  on  slavery,  364; 
secession,  365,  369,  370. 
Meeting-houses,  joint  use  of,  44. 
Memorial,  Dr.  Bray's,  98  ;  of  18.53, 
344  ;  report  of  committee  upon, 
354  ;  fatal  choice,  355  ;  task  taken 
up,  381. 
Mennonites,  72,  76,  150. 
Methodists,  160  ;  lost  to  the  Church, 
12,  171,  291  ;  m  Georgia,  124  ;  re- 
lation to  the  Church,  160,  169, 
170;  origin,  161;  purpose,  168; 
come  to  America,  170  ;  bishops, 
171;  after  the  Kevolution,  288; 
Dr.  Coke's  plan  of  union,  293  ; 
among  the  pioneers,  298,  307 ; 
Evangelicals  and,  312,  318  ;  eccle- 
siastical empire,  329;  on  the  Me- 
morial of,  1853,  351;  on  slavery, 
360. 

Mexico,  Cliurch  in,  413. 

Mexican  commission,  417. 

Miller,  Chaplain,  65,  177. 

Minnesota,  323,  .359. 

Missions,  to  Indians,  1,  7,  19  ;  of  the 
S.  P.  G.,  99  ;  new  departure,  300, 
309;  foreign,  321  ;  general,  327. 

Mississippi,  308,  328;  secession,  369, 
375. 

Missouri,  327. 

Moore,  Bishop,  284,  318,  328. 

Moravians,  20,  152,  164;  and  the 
Church,  341,  3.53. 

Moravian  Orders,  420. 

Morton,  John,  36. 

Muhlenbergs,  the,  151,  206,  326,  327, 
343,  355,  357. 

Name  of  the  Church,  220. 

National  Church,  11,  297,  299,  300, 
309,  310,  318,  321. 

New  England,  first  colony  in,  29; 
Puritans,  26  it  seq.;  planting  the 
Church  in,  35;  "converts,"  127, 
2.56;  condition  just  before  the 
Revolution,  190 ;  reorganization, 


INDEX. 


465 


223 ;  plan  fen-  the  Episcopate,  223  ■ 
eeclesiasticism  of,  238,  240  ;  after 
the  Revolution,  289  ;  in  1830,  295. 

New  Jersey,  75;  (Burlington),  178, 
179,  191  ;  in  1820,  296. 

Newman,  331  ;  his  purpose,  332;  the 
outcome,  334,  337,  340. 

Newton,  John,  313. 

New  York,  settled,  59;  coming  of 
English  Church  to,  63  ;  Trinity 
Parish,  67,  95;  in  1700,  95  ;  just 
before  the  Revolution,  191  ;  party 
strife,  284  ;  in  1820,  295. 

Nicholson,  Gov.,  89,  115,  116,  179. 

Nitschman,  Bishop,  152. 

Nonjurors,  232,  256. 

North  Carolina,  see  Carolinas. 

Oglethorpe's  settlement,  124,  161. 

Ohio,  condition  in  1820,  296,  298,  301  ; 
Phil.  Chase,  302,  306,  323  ;  Church 
organized,  303. 

Old  South  Meeting-House,  44. 

Old  Swedes  Churches,  70. 

Onderdonk,  Bishop,  326,  327. 

Orders,  the  question  of,  128, 130, 174. 
345,  349,  351 ;  Scotch,  233  ;  rela- 
tion of  the  three,  266. 

Ordination,  difficulties  of,  176;  power 
of  selection  for,  268. 

Oregon,  358. 

Organization  of  the  Church,  two 
theories  of,  173;  ui  Maryland, 
220 ;  in  Virginia,  222 ;  in  New 
England,  223  ;  political  obstacles, 
226;  in  the  Middle  States,  238: 
fundamental  principles,  239. 

Otey,  Bishop,  307,  320,  343,  350,  365. 
370. 

Oxford  Movement,  the,  329,  333  ei 
seq.;  results,  334,  340,  341. 

Paca,  Gov.,  221. 
Paine,  Tom,  195,  280. 
Parker,  Dr.,  256,  258,  259,  293. 
"Parsons'  Cause,"  the,  121. 
Partisan  Church  papers,  396. 


Penn,  William,  76,  77. 
Pennsylvania,  colonized,  77 ;  first 
Church,  80  ;  Christ  Church,  81  ; 
in  1700,  95;  Talbot's  report,  102; 
University  of,  131,  195  ;  German 
immigration,  148  ;  "  Dutch,"  149  ; 
in  1820,  296. 
Philadelphia,  69,  70,  79,  80,  81,  156; 

see  Pennsylvania. 
Pilgrims,  the,  28. 
Pocahontas,  19. 

Polk,  Bishop,  343,  376  ;  on   the  Me- 
morial  of  1853,  352  ;  on  slavery, 
366,  369,  370. 
Porteus,  Bishop,  317. 
Potter,  Bishop  Alonzo,  343,  350,  351, 

357. 
Prayer-Book,  imposed  by  law,  10 ; 
distasteful  to  Puritans,  37,  38,  94  ; 
scarcity  of,  87 ;  English  book  in 
use,  244  ;  revision  of,  244,  261,  262, 
270,  311,  402;  commission,  407. 
Presbyterians,  lost  to  the  Church, 
12  ;  with  the  Indians,  20  ;  Dutch, 
61,  62  ;  in  New  York,  65  ;  in  the 
Carolinas,  84,  124  ;  in  Maryland, 
110,  111  ;  and  revivalism,  140  ;  in 
Scotland,  153  ;  in  America,  156 ; 
attitude  toward  the  Church,  157  ; 
influence,  159  ;  after  the  Revolu- 
tion, 281  ;  among  the  pioneers, 
299;  strife,  329  ;  on  the  Memorial, 
353 ;  on  slavery,  360. 
Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge, 

Society  for,  97. 
Propagation   of  the  Gospel,  Society 

for,  96  ;  see  Society. 
Property,  the  Church's,  219,  221,  287, 

295. 
"Proposed    Book,"    the,    245;    see 

Prayer-Book. 
"  Protestant  Catholics,"  57. 
Protestant   Episcopal    Church,   220, 

341,  342,  350. 
Protestantism,  174,  332. 
Provoost,  Bishop,  207,  249,  253,  258, 
284,  285. 


4(i() 


INDEX, 


Puritans,  26, 136 ;  lost  to  the  Church, 
12  ;  attitude  toward  the  Church, 
16,  29,  36,  39,  94,  128,  132,  183  ; 
laws,  22,  34  ;  theory,  31  ;  temper, 
32  ;  and  the  Prayer-Book,  37,  38  ; 
joint  use  of  meeting  houses,  44  ; 
quarrel  with,  ended,  47  ;  and  the 
Dutch,  61,  62  ;  influence  upon  the 
ministerial  office,  91 ;  relaxation 
of  religious  life,  136 ;  and  revi- 
valism, 142,  143. 

QUADKII.ATEUAL,  the,  423. 

Quakers,  lost  to  the  Church,  12;  at- 
titude toward  the  Church,  23,  78, 
102,  103,  193  ;  with  the  Puritans, 
35,  41;  with  the  Dutch,  62;  George 
Fox  and  the  "  Inner  Light,"  72; 
in  New  Jersey,  75 ;  William  Penn, 
76;  George  Keith,  79;  in  Mary- 
land, 105,  106. 

Randolph,  John,  120. 

Ravenscroft,  Bishop,  307,  320,  341. 

Redemption  ers,  149,  197. 

Reformed  Church,  the,  150,  329 ;  on 
the  Memorial  of  1853,  354. 

Reformed  Episcopal  Church,  355, 
381,  400. 

Revision  of  the  Prayer-Book,  see 
Prayer-Book. 

Revolutionary  War,  202. 

Richmond,  William,  358. 

Riley,  Bishop,  414,  419. 

Ritual,  controversj',  382;  commis- 
sion, 390. 

Ritualism,  161,  271,  272,  355,  381 ;  in 
Georgia,  163  ;  and  the  Memorial, 
355. 

Robinson,  Rev.  John,  28. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  433. 

Romanists,  the,  48  et  seq.;  and  Puri- 
tans, 26  ;  attitude  toward  Acts  of 
Uniformity  and  Supremacy,  27  ; 
Lord  Baltimore,  48  ;  religious  lib- 
erty among,  50 ;  proscribed  in 
Maryland,  55  ;  decadence,  53,  105, 


339 ;  attitude  toward  the  Church, 
110  ;  and  Anglo-Catholicism,  329  ; 
growth,  339 ;  converts  and   per- 
verts, 340  ;  on  slavery,  360. 
Rutledge,  Bishop,  370. 

Sacraments,  position  of,  144,  341. 

Salem  (Mass.),  29,  33  ;  (N.J.),  75. 

Salmon,  328. 

Saltonstall,  Gov.,  131. 

Schwenkfelders,  151. 

Scott,  Thomas,  313,  317. 

Scott,  Th.  r.,  358. 

Seabury,  Samuel.  200,  207,  208,  218, 
237,  249,  257,  290 ;  elected  bishop, 
227  ;  career,  227  ;  consecration, 
229,  234,  255,  260  ;  Toryism,  262  ; 
manner,  289 ;  churchmanship, 
319. 

Sect,  the  Church  as  a,  342,  343,  ^53, 
355  ;  first  American,  160. 

Service,  11,  87,  199,  200  ;  for  Fourth 
of  July,  247,  263. 

Sewell,  81. 

"  Siebentagen,"  the,  151. 

Simeon,  313,  314,  321. 

Sisterhoods,  354. 

Skelton,  Francis,  29. 

Slaves,  first,  21  ;  influence  of,  192 ; 
question  of,  279 ;  division  of 
Churches  upon,  360;  the  Church's 
attitude  toward,  361  ct  seq. 

Smith,  Bishop  of  South  Carolinii,  282. 

Smith,  Bishop  of  Kentucky,  307. 

Smith,  Capt.  John,  9,  16,  20. 

Smith,  Dr.,  216,  237;  reorganizing 
and  naming  the  Church,  220; 
elected  bishop,  221  ;  character, 
253,  258,  311;  revising  the  Prayer- 
Book,  345. 

Social  conditions  in  America,  198, 
199,311;  1790  to  1812,  277;  French 
influence,  280;  modern,  292. 

Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel 
(S.  P.  G.),  96,  99, 178, 192;  archives 
of,  104  ;  in  South  Carolina,  125 ; 
in  New  England,  224. 


INDEX. 


467 


South  Carolina,  see  Carolinas. 

State  autonomy,  273,  297,  300,  306, 
309,  310,  324,  338,  366. 

State,  xee  Church  and  State. 

State  Idea,  see  Federal  Idea. 

Stevens,  Bishop,  378. 

St.  Philip's,  Charleston,  84. 

Stuyvesant,  Peter,  62,  70. 

Sunday,  observance  of.  159. 

Sunday-schools,  294,  320,  351. 

Support  of  the  Church,  21,  57,  121, 
201 ;  in  Massachusetts,  43 ;  in 
New  York,  67;  in  South  Carolina^ 
85;  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  92, 
107,  117,  121  ;  by  S.  P.  G.,  101, 
103  ;  in  Vermont,  190  ;  lotteries, 
201  ;  church  property  after  the 
Revolution,  219,  221,  287. 

Supremacy,  Act  of,  8,  26. 

Surplice,  87,  199,  328. 

Swedes,  69,  70 ;  reformed  Church, 
341,  351. 

Talbot,  John,  101,  103;  report  from 

Philadelphia,  102,  177. 
Temperance  question,  326. 
Tenison,  Bishop  of  London,  177, 179, 

180. 
Tennessee,  301  ;    Church  organized, 

308;  (Memphis),  328. 
Texas,  328,  359;  secession,  369. 
Theories,  of  the  Church,  Puritans', 

27,    31  ;     Churchmen's,    27,   343 ; 

Pilgrims',   28  ;    English,    30,   93 ; 

two   now  extant,   173  ;    in   New 

England,  223;     of   religion,    138, 

144,  164,  165,  168. 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  the,  274,  331. 
Toleration,  Act  of  1688,  32;  Roman- 
ist, 50,  51,  52  ;    in   Maryland,  58  ; 

among  the  Dutch,  62. 
Tories,  204,  207,  216,  225,  247,  279. 
Tractarians,   the,   330  ;    object,  333  ; 

results,  334,  338,  340,  341. 
Trinity,  the  doctrine  of,  248,  249. 
Trinity  Church,  New  York,  67,  95. 
"Tunkers,"  the,  150. 


Tyng,  Rev.  Dr.  S.  H.,  318. 
Tyng,  Rev.  Stephen  H.,  Jr.,  397. 

Uniformity,  Act  of,  8, 10;  effect  of, 
11,  12,  26,  32;  in  Maryland,  106; 
tendency  toward,  271;  uncatholic, 
348,  352  ;  "  catholic,"  352 ;  for- 
saken, 381. 

Unitarianism,  248. 

Unity,  striving  for,  257;  Dr.  Parker's 
scheme,  259 ;  secured  (in  the 
Church),  263;  with  Methodists, 
290,291,292;  Memorial  of  1853, 
346,  350,  353,  357  ;  the  Church's 
hope,  381. 

Universalism,  317. 

University,  of  Pennsylvauia,  131, 135; 
of  the  South,  369. 

Upfold,  Bishop,  353. 

Uses,  variety  of,  11. 

"  Venerable  Society,"  96  ;  see 
S.  P.  G. 

Venn,  313. 

Ver  Mehr,  Dr.,  358. 

Via  Media,  335,  340. 

Viri*hiia,  14  ;  Commissary  Blair  in, 
112;  loj'alty  of,  112;  reorganizing 
the  Church,  222 ;  condition  in 
1800,  287;  in  1820,296;  seminary, 
321. 

Wainwright,  Bishop,  338,  350. 

War,  the  Civil,  effects  of,  379,  380. 

Warrington,  Rev.  Thomas,  123. 

Washburn,  Dr.,  355. 

Washington,  George,  120,  203,  287. 

Welsh,  the,  and  Indians,  82;  Church 
colony,  120. 

Wesley,  124,  161,  329;  in  Georgia, 
162  ;  among  the  Moravians,  152, 
164;  his  conversion,  165;  purpose, 
168;  organization,  169,  171,  291. 

West,  the  Church  in,  322,  357,  358, 
381. 

White,  Bishop,  plan  for  American 
Episcopate,     188  ;    confirpiation, 


468 


INDEX. 


200,  282  ;  patriot,  207  ;  after  the 
Kevolution,  218,  224  ;  career,  237, 
290  ;  revising  tlie  Pia3er-B()ok, 
245 ;  elected  bishop,  253;  striving 
for  unity,  258  ;  and  the  English 
succession,  260,  262;  death,  320. 

White,  Rev.  John,  29. 

Whitefield,  George,  124,  168,  329; 
character,  141. 

Whittaker,  Alexander,  19,  113. 

Wliittingham,  Bishop,  326,  343,  365. 

Wilberforce,  Bishop,  362,  363  v. 


William  of  Orange,  46,  64,  232. 
William    and    Mary     College,    113 ; 

value  to  tlie  Church,  116;    after 

the  Revolution,  288. 
Williams,  Bishop,  350,  352. 
Williams,  Roger,  40,  62. 
Wilmer,  Bishop,  371,  375. 
Wilmington  (Del.),  69. 

Yale  College,  127,  134. 
Yeo's  report  of  Maryland,  54. 


DATE   DUE 

Oftft^* 

JUN02 

Z003 

nun  ^ 

flllh^ 

5?0OJ 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S  A 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 


0038093715 


BRITTLE  DO  NOt 
^>^  PHOTOCOPY  ' 


ri 


,^^ 


r 


